Melbourne Hall, from the Garden.
In 1818 Mr. Lamb became Secretary for Ireland under Canning, and so continued under the next two administrations. In 1828 he succeeded to the titles and estates as second Viscount Melbourne, Baron Melbourne, and Baron Kilmore. In 1830 his lordship became Home Secretary, and in July, 1834, was made Prime Minister, but only retained that office till the following November. In 1835 he again became Prime Minister, and so continued until 1841. Being Premier at the time of the Queen’s accession to the throne, Lord Melbourne became her Majesty’s confidential adviser. His lordship died, in 1848, without surviving issue, when the title passed to his brother, the Hon. Frederick Lamb, who had been, in 1839, created Baron Beauvale, and had held many important posts. His lordship, who married the Countess Adela, daughter of Count Maltzan, Prussian Ambassador at Vienna, died without issue, when the title became extinct. The estates then passed to his only surviving sister, the Hon. Emily Mary, married, first, to Earl Cowper, and, secondly, to the late Prime Minister, Viscount Palmerston. This lady was born in 1787, and married, in 1805, Peter Leopold Louis Francis, fifth Earl Cowper, by whom she had issue—George Augustus Frederick, Viscount Fordwich, who became sixth Earl Cowper; Lady Emily Caroline Catherine, married, in 1830, to the present Earl of Shaftesbury; the Hon. William Francis Cowper, who, on the death of Lady Palmerston, in 1869, became the owner, under his will, of Lord Palmerston’s estates, and assumed the additional surname of Temple (Cowper-Temple); the Hon. Charles Spencer Cowper, who married the Lady Blessington, and afterwards Jessie Mary, only surviving child of Colonel Clinton McLean; and the Lady Frances Elizabeth. Earl Cowper dying in 1837, Lady Cowper, in 1839, was married to Viscount Palmerston, who, dying in 1865, left her again a widow, and his title became extinct. At Lady Palmerston’s death, in 1869, her estates passed to her grandson, the present Earl Cowper, who now owns Melbourne Hall and its surrounding estates.
The Hon. Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston and Baron Temple of Mount Temple, was the son of Henry, second Viscount Palmerston, by his second wife, Mary, daughter of Benjamin Mee, of Bath. He was born in 1784, and was educated at Harrow and at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and succeeded his father in the titles and estates as third Viscount Palmerston and Baron Temple in 1802, and entered Parliament in 1807, from which time his name was intimately mixed up with the political history of this country. He successively became a Knight of the Garter and a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, and, among other offices, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Constable of Dover Castle, Elder Brother of Trinity House, Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, a Lord of the Admiralty, Secretary at War, Foreign Secretary, and Home Secretary. In 1855 he became Prime Minister, and so continued until 1858. In 1859 he again became Prime Minister, and died whilst holding that office in 1865. The title then became extinct. Lord Palmerston by his will, dated November 22nd, 1864, left his real and leasehold estates in England and Ireland to Lady Palmerston for life, and after her decease to her second son, the Right Hon. William Francis Cowper. The will expressed an earnest wish that Mr. Cowper, upon coming into possession of the estates, should immediately apply for a royal license to take and use, for himself and his descendants, the surname of Temple, either in substitution for, or in addition to, that of Cowper, but so that Temple should be the final name; and the family arms of Temple to be quartered with those of Cowper. This was accordingly done. The arms of Lord Palmerston were—quarterly, first and fourth, or, an eagle displayed, sable; second and third, argent, two bars, sable, each charged with three martlets, or. Supporters—dexter, a lion reguardant, pæan; and sinister, a horse reguardant, argent, maned, tailed, and hoofed, or. Crest—a hound sejant, sable, collared, or. Motto—“Flecti non frangi.”
It is a somewhat curious circumstance, as will have been gleaned, and one worth noting, that Melbourne Hall became the seat, within twenty years, of two Prime Ministers, and that the titles of each, Lords Melbourne and Palmerston, have become extinct.
The present noble owner of Melbourne Hall and its surrounding estates is the Right Hon. Francis Thomas De Grey Cowper, seventh Earl Cowper, Viscount Fordwich, Baron Cowper, Baron Butler, and Baron Dingwall, and a Baronet. His lordship (who is grandson of Lady Palmerston) was born in 1834, and is the son of George Augustus Frederick, sixth earl, by his wife, Anne Florence, Baroness Lucas, daughter of the second Earl De Grey, and was educated at Harrow and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he proceeded M.A. in 1855. He succeeded to the titles and estates on the death of his father in 1856, and from 1871 to 1874 was Captain and Gold Shell of H.M. Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms. In 1870 Earl Cowper married Katrine Cecilia, daughter of Lord William Compton, heir-presumptive to the Marquis of Northampton, by whom, however, he has no issue, the heir-presumptive being his brother, the Hon. Henry Frederick Cowper, M.P.
The arms of Earl Cowper are—argent, three martlets, gules; on a chief engrailed, of the last, three annulets, or. Crest—a lion’s jamb erased, or, holding a cherry branch, vert, fructed, gules. Supporters—two dun horses, close cropped (except a tuft on the withers) and docked, a large blaze down the face, a black list down the back, and three white feet, viz. both hind and the near fore foot. Motto—“Tuum est.”
The Gardens and Yew Tunnel.