George_Larpent

George Larpent

George Larpent

British businessman (1786–1855)

Sir George Gerard de Hochepied Larpent, 1st Baronet (16 February 1786 – 8 March 1855) was a British businessman of Huguenot and Dutch descent and a Liberal Party politician.

Quick Facts The Right HonourableSir George de Hochepied Larpent, Bt, Member of Parliament for Nottingham ...

Early life

Larpent born in London. At that time he added de Hochepied to his family name, Larpent. He was made a British baronet in 1841.[1] His father was John Larpent, the inspector of plays. His mother, Anna Margaretta Porter, assisted in this work. She kept a journal for most of her life which is now in the Huntington Library.[1] His elder brother, John James Larpent, inherited the Hungarian title of Baron de Hochpied, through his mother's line, upon the death of their uncle, George de Hochepied, 6th Baron de Hochepied, in 1828.

His maternal grandparents were Sir James Porter, the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and the former Clarissa Catherine de Hochepied (a daughter of Elbert de Hochepied, 2nd Baron de Hochepied, the Dutch Ambassador to Constantinople).[2]

Career

He was involved with trade to India, entering the East India house of Cockerell & Larpent, before becoming chairman of the Oriental and China Association, and was deputy chairman of the St. Katherine's Dock company. Larpent stood unsuccessfully for Parliament at a by-election in May 1840 for Ludlow[3] He was unsuccessful again at a by-election in April 1841 for Nottingham[4] but at the general election in June 1841, just prior to becoming a baronet in August, he won the seat. However, he served little more than a year as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham; he resigned from Parliament in May 1842. At the 1847 general election he stood in the City of London, where he fell just three votes short of winning the fourth seat.[5]

In 1847 he was Chairman of 'a Committee for promoting the extension of Steam Navigation to Australia and New Zealand',[6] which also included the pioneer of the 'overland route' to the East, Lt. Thomas Waghorn, and another would-be improver of routes to the East, Henry Wise.[7]

He edited the Peninsular War journal [8] of his half-brother, Francis Seymour Larpent, and a History of Turkey [9] from papers left by his grandfather, Sir James Porter.[10]

Personal life

Sir George was twice married. On 13 October 1813, he married Charlotte Cracroft, a daughter of William Cracroft of the Exchequer Office, and Elizabeth Sewell Hawkes. Before her death on 18 February 1851, they were the parents of:[10]

  • Sir Albert John Larpent, 2nd Baronet (1816–1861), who married Catherine Lydia Shaw, daughter of Major Lewis Simeon Shaw, of the Bengal Staff Corps, in 1838.[10]
  • Anna Catherine de Hochepied Larpent (1819–1893), who married the Rev. Edward Aislabie Ommanney, Prebendary of Wells Cathedral and eldest son of Sir Francis Ommanney, in 1841.[10]
  • Frederick Seymour de Hochepied Larpent (1822–1846), who died unmarried.[10]

On 17 July 1852, he married Louisa Martha Bailey, daughter of George Bailey of Windsor. Before her death on 23 March 1856, they were the parents of two children who died in infancy.[10]

Sir George died on 8 March 1855, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Albert.[10][11]

Legacy

In Lady Larpent's garden at Roehampton, Hampshire, Ceratostigma plumbaginoides was first successfully flowered in England; it was at first given the name Plumbago larpentae, "Lady Larpent's Plumbago".[12]

His grandson, George Albert Larpent, the third and last baronet who fought in the Kaffir War, committed suicide in 1899 after which the baronetcy became extinct.[13]

References

  1. [1]
    "Larpent, John" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  2. [2]
    Groot, de; Boogert, Maurits van den (25 October 2021). Friends and Rivals in the East: Studies in Anglo-Dutch Relations in the Levant from the Seventeenth to the Early Nineteenth Century. BRILL. p. 205. ISBN 978-90-04-47661-5. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  3. [3]
    Craig 1989, p. 193.
  4. [4]
    Craig 1989, p. 228.
  5. [5]
    Craig 1989, p. 4.
  6. [6]
    "STEAM TO ENGLAND". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842–1954). 7 July 1847. p. 2. Retrieved 3 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. [7]
    Craig, Fred W. S. (1989) [1977]. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 978-0-900178-26-9.
  8. [8]
    Larpent, Francis Seymour (1853). The Private Journal of F. Seymour Larpent: During the Peninsular War, from 1812 to Its Close. R. Bentley.
  9. [9]
    Porter, Sir James (1 January 1854). Turkey; Its History and Progress. Gregg International Publishers. ISBN 978-0-576-03954-3.
  10. [10]
    Lodge, Edmund (1859). The Genealogy of the Existing British Peerage and Baronetage: Containing the Family Histories of the Nobility. With the Arms of the Peers. Hurst and Blackett. p. 738. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  11. [11]
    Debrett, John (1878). Debrett's Illustrated Peerage and Baronetage, Titles of Courtesy and the Knightage. Kelly's Directories. p. 284. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  12. [12]
    Coats, Alice M. (1965). "Ceratostigma". Garden shrubs and their histories. Dutton. p. 66.
  13. [13]
    "The Late Sir G. de Hochepied-Larpent". The Morning Post. 20 May 1899. p. 2. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
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