Charles Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Stuart of Wortley

Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Stuart of Wortley PC (15 September 1851 – 24 April 1926), was a British Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1916, shortly before he was raised to the peerage. He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department between 1885–1886 and 1886–1892 in the Conservative administrations headed by Lord Salisbury.

The Lord Stuart of Wortley
"Sheffield". Caricature by Spy published in Vanity Fair in 1886.
Under-Secretary of State
for the Home Department
In office
30 June 1885 – 28 January 1886
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded byHenry Fowler
Succeeded byHenry Broadhurst
In office
4 August 1886 – 11 August 1892
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Marquess of Salisbury
Preceded byHenry Broadhurst
Succeeded byHerbert Gladstone
Personal details
Born15 September 1851 (1851-09-15)
Escrick, East Riding of Yorkshire
Died24 April 1926 (1926-04-25) (aged 74)
Chelsea, London
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)Beatrice Trollope (d. 1881)
Alice Sophia Caroline Millais
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford

Background and education

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A member of the Stuart family headed by the Marquess of Bute, Stuart-Wortley was the son of James Stuart-Wortley, youngest son of James Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Wharncliffe, son of James Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, second son of Prime Minister John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. His mother was the Hon. Jane Stuart-Wortley (born Lawley).[1] He was educated at Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford and called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1876. He was secretary to the Royal Commission on the Sale of Benefices from 1879 to 1880.[2]

Political career

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In 1880 Stuart-Wortley was the first Conservative to be elected as a Member of Parliament for Sheffield,[3] and when this constituency was broken up under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, he was elected in the 1885 general election as MP for the new Sheffield Hallam constituency.[4] He served under Lord Salisbury as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department between 1885 and 1886 and again from 1886 to 1892. In 1896 he was admitted to the Privy Council.[5] Stuart-Wortley resigned from the House of Commons on 16 December 1916[6] and in 1917 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Stuart of Wortley, of the City of Sheffield.[7]

Personal life

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Lord Stuart of Wortley married Beatrice, daughter of Thomas and Theodosia Trollope[8] (and niece of the author Anthony Trollope), in 1880. Beatrice died in July 1881 and Stuart married as his second wife Alice Sophia Caroline Millais (1862–1936), daughter of the artist John Everett Millais.[2] Known to her family as Carrie, she and her husband shared an interest in music, playing the Grieg and Schumann concertos on two grand pianos at their home. Among her friends were the art critic Claude Phillips, the arts patron Frank Schuster, Lady Charles Beresford and the composer Edward Elgar to whom she was known as Alice and 'Windflower'.[9]

He died in April 1926, aged 74, when the barony became extinct.[8]

Honours

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In October 1920, the Great Central Railway gave the name Lord Stuart of Wortley to one of their newly built 4-6-0 express passenger locomotives, no. 1168 of class 9P (LNER class B3). It carried the name until withdrawal in September 1946.[10][11]

References

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  1. ^ Jane Stuart Wortley, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Retrieved 31 January 2016
  2. ^ a b Debretts Guide to the House of Commons 1886
  3. ^ "leighrayment.com House of Commons: Shankill to Southampton". Archived from the original on 9 October 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ "leighrayment.com House of Commons: Hackney to Harwich". Archived from the original on 20 December 2009. Retrieved 18 November 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ^ leighrayment.com Privy Counsellors 1836–1914[usurped]
  6. ^ Department of Information Services (9 June 2009). "Appointments to the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead Stewardships since 1850" (PDF). House of Commons Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2011. Retrieved 30 November 2009.
  7. ^ "No. 29913". The London Gazette. 23 January 1917. p. 842.
  8. ^ a b thepeerage.com Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley, 1st and last Baron Stuart of Wortley, retrieved 21 September 2014
  9. ^ McVeagh, Diana M. (2007). Elgar the Music Maker. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-84383-295-9. known to her family as Carrie ... She and her husband shared a passion for music, playing the Grieg and Schumann concertos on the two grand pianos at their home ... circle of friends, among them Claude Phillips the art critic, Frank Schuster, and Lady Charles Beresford. Known to Elgar first as Alice, then as Windflower, she became his creative muse.
  10. ^ Boddy, M.G.; Brown, W.A.; Fry, E.V.; Hennigan, W.; Hoole, Ken; Manners, F.; Neve, E.; Platt, E.N.T.; Proud, P.; Yeadon, W.B. (March 1975). Locomotives of the L.N.E.R., part 2B: Tender Engines - Classes B1 to B19. Lincoln: RCTS. p. 48. ISBN 0-901115-73-8. OCLC 655688865.
  11. ^ Boddy, M.G.; Fry, E.V.; Hennigan, W.; Proud, P.; Yeadon, W.B. (July 1963). Fry, E.V. (ed.). Locomotives of the L.N.E.R., part 1: Preliminary Survey. Potters Bar: RCTS. pp. 21, 23.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Sheffield
18801885
With: A. J. Mundella
Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam
18851916
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
1885–1886
Succeeded by
Preceded by Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
1886–1892
Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Chairman of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations
1892
Succeeded by
Church of England titles
Preceded by Third Church Estates Commissioner
1895–1926
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Stuart of Wortley
1917–1926
Extinct