Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 55.djvu/116

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Stuart-Wortley
110
Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie

during a tour through Holland, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and Hungary (1839). In 1837 and 1840 she edited the ‘Keepsake,’ for which she wrote many poems. Among the contributors was Tennyson, who published in the ‘Keepsake’ for 1837 his ‘St. Agnes’ (afterwards republished under the title of ‘St. Agnes' Eve’ in the volume of 1842). Others of Lady Emmeline's associates were the Countess of Blessington, Theodore Hook, Richard Monckton Milnes, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, and Mrs. Shelley. In 1849–50 Lady Emmeline visited the United States, and published an account of her travels in three volumes in 1851, and ‘Sketches of Travel in America’ in 1853. Her last production, also a book of travel, ‘A Visit to Portugal and Madeira,’ appeared in 1854.

While riding in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem on 1 May 1855, her leg was fractured by the kick of a mule. She was not in good health at the time, yet persisted in journeying from Beyrout to Aleppo, and in returning by an unfrequented road across Lebanon. She died at Beyrout in November 1855.

In the quality and quantity of her literary work Lady Emmeline has been compared to Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Newcastle [q. v.], and to Letitia Elizabeth Landon [q. v.]; but, although she possessed their facility of memory, she had far less literary capacity. Many of her poems first appeared in ‘Blackwood's Magazine.’

Other works by her are:

  1. ‘London at Night, and other Poems,’ 1834.
  2. ‘Unloved of Earth, and other Poems,’ 1834.
  3. ‘The Knight and the Enchantress, with other Poems,’ 1835.
  4. ‘The Village Churchyard, and other Poems,’ 1835.
  5. ‘The Visionary, a Fragment, with other Poems,’ 1836.
  6. ‘Fragments and Fancies,’ 1837.
  7. ‘Hours at Naples, and other Poems,’ 1837.
  8. ‘Lays of Leisure Hours,’ 2 vols. 1838.
  9. ‘Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and other Poems,’ 3 vols. 1838.
  10. ‘Jairah: a Dramatic Mystery, and other Poems,’ 1840.
  11. ‘Eva, or the Error,’ a play in five acts in verse, 1840.
  12. ‘Alphonso Algarves,’ a play in five acts in verse, 1841.
  13. ‘Angiolina del Albino, or Truth and Treachery,’ a play in verse, 1841. 14. ‘The Maiden of Moscow,’ a poem, 1841.
  14. ‘Lillia Branca, a Tale of Italy,’ in verse, 1841.
  15. ‘Moonshine,’ a comedy,’ 1843.
  16. ‘Adelaide,’ 1843.
  17. ‘Ernest Mountjoy,’ a comedietta in three acts in prose, 1844.
  18. Two poems on the Great Exhibition, 1851.

[Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.; Gent. Mag. 1856, i. 183; Burke's Peerage; Brit. Mus. Cat.]

E. L.

STUART-WORTLEY-MACKENZIE, JAMES ARCHIBALD, first Baron Wharncliffe (1776–1845), statesman, born on 6 Oct. (or according to Burke, 1 Nov.) 1776, was the second but eldest surviving son of James Archibald Stuart (1747–1818), lieutenant-colonel of the 92nd regiment of foot, by Margaret, daughter of Sir David Conyngham, bart. of Milncraig, Ayrshire. John Stuart, third earl of Bute [q. v.], was his grandfather, and John, first marquis of Bute, his uncle. His father's mother (the countess of Bute) was Mary, only daughter of Edward Wortley-Montagu; she had been created a peeress on 3 April 1761 as Baroness Mountstuart. In 1794 the father succeeded on her death to her Wortley estates in Yorkshire and Cornwall, and assumed the name of Wortley on 17 Jan. 1795. In 1803 he assumed the additional name of Mackenzie upon succeeding to the Scottish property of his uncle, James Stuart Mackenzie of Rosehaugh.

The younger James Archibald, who eventually dropped the last surname of Mackenzie, was educated at Charterhouse. He entered the army in November 1790 as an ensign in the 48th foot. In the following May he exchanged into the 7th royal fusiliers, and on 4 May 1793 obtained a company in the 72nd highlanders. He served in Canada for three years, and afterwards at the Cape. On 10 May 1796 he became lieutenant-colonel, and on 1 Dec. colonel of the 12th foot. In 1797 he was sent to the Cape with despatches from George, lord Macartney [q. v.], and on 27 Dec. purchased a company in the 1st foot guards. He quitted the army at the peace of 1801.

From 1797 till his father's death in 1818 he sat in the tory interest in the House of Commons for the family borough of Bossiney. On 21 May 1812 he moved a resolution on his own initiative for an address to the prince regent, calling on him to form an efficient administration. A few days before Perceval had been assassinated, and the object of the motion was to compel his colleagues to admit a more liberal element into the administration. The motion, seconded by Lord Milton, was carried against the ministers by a majority of four (Parl. Deb. xxiii. 249–84). Next day ministers resigned, and Lord Wellesley was commissioned to form a government. Negotiations with the whigs having come to nothing, Stuart-Wortley on 11 June moved a second resolution of like tenor, which was eventually negatived without a division (ib. pp. 397–45; cf. Colchester, Diary, ii. 387; Buckingham, Courts and Cabinets of the Regency, i. 381).