The Dukes of Manchester - a bit of general blurb
Why did the Manchester fortunes seemingly vanish? Well it is probably simplest to compare this line of the family to the senior branch of House of Montagu. Although the elder line became extinct in 1745, the family estate including the mansion at Boughton, that is today known as the 'English Versailles' passed through the female line to the Scott Dukes of Buccleuch, who eventually added the Montagu surname to their own. Those lucky Buccleuchs subsequently inherited the Dukedom of Queensberry along with the Douglas surname and its vast patrimony, thus uniting three ducal interests and creating one of the greatest collections of castles, mansions and works of art in existence to this day!
The Dukes of Manchester are descend from the younger brother of the 1st Baron Montagu of Boughton who was founder of the line from which the Dukes of Montagu rose and fell, and from whom Boughton eventually passed to the Buccleuchs. The founder of the collateral line of Montagus, trained as a lawyer, as he had little prospect of inheriting any significant part of the Montagu lands as a younger son. Instead, this man acquired his own landed interests in the neighbouring county of Huntingdon and eventually acquired a place in the Lords as Viscount Mandeville and Baron Kimbolton in 1620, when peerages could be bought for 10,000 pounds. It was in the following year, that the new Viscount's elder brother got his own coronet when he became Baron Montagu of Boughton.
In 1626 Viscount Mandeville was promoted in the coronation honours of Charles I and became Earl of Manchester. His great great grandson, the 4th Earl would be rewarded for little more than a rather inconsequential career as a diplomat with a ducal coronet in 1719, fourteen years after his cousin, the Lord of the Manor of Boughton climbed from Earl of Montagu to his Dukedom. Thereafter the two branches jogged along together with another branch, that founded by the younger brother of the 1st Lord Montagu of Boughton and of the 1st Earl of Manchester which was also established in Huntingdonshire under the nominal head of the Earls of Sandwich. It is relevant to note that the 1st Earl of Manchester apparently bought the estate of Hinchingbrooke, not far from his own seat at Kimbolton, and settled it on his younger brother, thus providing the future Earls of Sandwich with a landed interest conducive to their status. Even more pertinent, is that the 1st Earl left all his sons other than his heir to the Earldom well provided for including his fifth son, who inherited the estate of Horton in Northamptonshire, which eventually became the seat of his son, Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax.
This liberality with regards to distribution of property, demonstrates what may be construed as a fatal error on the part of the 1st Earl, who having worked so hard to build up his landed interests and buy his way into the Lords, subsequently scattered a fair proportion amongst his younger male progeny, rather than leave it intact to his successor as Earl of Manchester. Perhaps the 1st Earl envisaged that his sons and grandsons would use their inheritances to their advantage,through personal labour and lucrative marriages to heiress as a way to build upon the interests he provided. In this his descendants the Earls of Sandwich, such a hypothesis was proved relatively successful, as they became exemplars of the patrician classes, living in comfort down the ages at Hinchingbrooke and taking an active and for the most part benevolent interest in county affairs, whilst at Kimbolton their cousins the Manchesters did likewise for a few generations at least, until the 4th Earl was promoted and the pressures of maintaining the dignity of a Dukedom eventually proved too cumbersome to bear without embarrassment for his descendants.
Meanwhile at Boughton, the senior branch went from strength to strength in their quest for pre-eminence. The 3rd Lord Montagu of Boughton recognized the relative modesty of his landed interests and embarked on a highly successful career at court, that blossomed during the most fraught period of Charles II's reign. Ralph Montagu became Master of the Great Wardrobe which came with a very useful salary in excess of 1,000 pounds per annum and various perquisites which would in time find their way into the chambers of the splendid new mansion he intended to build at Boughton. This magnifico of his age served as Ambassador to France and he even had time to marry two of the richest widows in the realm. In the case of his second marriage, Montagu showed just how mercenary and avaricious he could be, as his quarry the widowed Duchess of Albermarle, though incredibly rich in her own right as well as that of her late husband, was quite mad and had been heard to declare that she would never remarry unless her husband was an anointed sovereign. Ever resourceful, Ralph, 3rd Lord Montagu of Boughton ordered a suitably splendid and oriental looking outfit from his tailors and began to court the potty Duchess as the Emperor of China!
Once married to his 'Empress' Montagu set about his scheme to transform Boughton into a magnificent home. What he really wanted was a Dukedom. He seemed to spend the next decade and a half working towards this with the help of his wife's huge resources which he spent with relish. By 1705 he won his prize and became Duke of Montagu.
Whilst the new Dukes of Montagu and their descendants enjoyed lives of near unpararelled ducal spelndour at Boughton and later when it became just ones of numerous homes, the Manchesters spent the next century on the periphery, jogging along in comfort, but makig no attempt to enhance their fortunes or their profile. The 2nd Duke of Manchester married the 2nd Duke of Montagu's daughter Lady Isabella and this marriage could have greatly enhanced the fortunes of the Manchester branch, had the couple produced any children, but instead the Dukedom passed to his brother in turn. He, the 3rd Duke did not make such an auspicious marriage nor did his successors. The 5th Duke of Manchester was actually obliged to take the post of Governor of Jamaica in order to avoid the embarrassment of a constant lack of funds with which to maintain his dignity and that of his family.
To be continued.....