Charles Lennox 3rd Duke of Richmond (1735–1806)

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Field Marshal His Grace
The Duke of Richmond
KG PC FRS
Portrait by George Romney, c. 1777
Secretary of State for the Southern Department
In office
23 May 1766 – 29 July 1766
MonarchGeorge III
Prime MinisterThe Marquess of Rockingham
Preceded byHenry Seymour Conway
Succeeded byThe Earl of Shelburne
Personal details
Born(1735-02-22)22 February 1735
Westminster, London
Died29 December 1806(1806-12-29) (aged 71)
Goodwood, Sussex
Resting placeChichester Cathedral
SpouseLady Mary Bruce
Parent(s)Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Lennox
Lady Sarah Cadogan
Awards
Knight of the Garter
Military service
AllegianceGreat Britain
United Kingdom
Branch/serviceBritish Army
British Militia
Years of service
1752–1806
RankField Marshal
Unit2nd Regiment of Foot Guards
33rd Regiment of Foot
Commands72nd Regiment of Foot
Sussex Militia
Battles/wars

Field Marshal Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, KG, PC, FRS (22 February 1735 – 29 December 1806), styled Earl of March until 1750, was a British politician and military officer. Associated with the Rockingham Whigs, Richmond briefly served as Secretary of State for the Southern Department in 1766. His support for the Patriots during the American War of Independence along with concession in Ireland and parliamentary reform in Britain led Richmond to be nicknamed "the Radical Duke".[1][2] He is believed by many to be the source of the second parchment copy of the United States Declaration of Independence, known as the Sussex Declaration. Richmond went on to be a reforming Master-General of the Ordnance first in the first Rockingham ministry and then in the first Pitt ministry.

Early life

He was the eldest surviving son and heir of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Lennox by his wife Lady Sarah Cadogan, elder daughter and co-heiress of William Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan.[3] Known as the Earl of March or just "March" until 1750, he was educated at the elite Westminster School from age 7, the first in his family to be sent away to school rather than privately tutored at home. At school, the future Duke was a serious but undistinguished student, but importantly there he was a schoolmate of other future leaders of Britain. During his early time at Westminster School, Britain was involved in the War of the Austrian Succession in which March's father served in battle with George II. March's father led forces to defend the House of Hanover against the 1745 Jacobite rising led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, who was attempting to restore the House of Stuart. One of March's more senior classmates at Westminster, Charles Watson-Wentworth, later the 2nd Marquess of Rockingham and future prime minister under George III, left Westminster School to fight the Jacobites, returning afterwards.[4] March attended Leiden University for about six months in 1753.[5] He succeeded to the dukedom and other family titles in August 1750 when his father died.[6]

Career

1758 portrait of Richmond by Sir Joshua Reynolds
1759 painting of jockeys and grooms sporting Richmond's livery

Commissioned as an ensign in the British Army's 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards in March 1752,[7] he was promoted to captain in the 20th Regiment of Foot on 18 June 1753[8] studying the fortified towns of the Low Countries under his military tutor, Captain Guy Carleton, appointed on the recommendation of Colonel James Wolfe.[9] On 11 December 1755, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[10]

Promoted to lieutenant colonel in the 33rd Regiment of Foot on 7 June 1756,[11] a second battalion of the 33rd Foot was raised in 1757 and redesignated the following year as its own regiment, the 72nd Regiment of Foot, with Richmond as its commanding officer, while his younger brother Lord George Lennox took command of the 33rd Foot.[3] In May 1758 he was appointed colonel of the 72nd Foot.[12] Richmond took part in the raid on Cherbourg in August 1758 and served as aide-de-camp to Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel at the Battle of Minden in August 1759.[6] Promoted to major general on 9 March 1761, at the end of the Seven Years' War he oversaw the 72nd Foot's disbandment in 1763.[13]

Appointed Lord Lieutenant of Sussex by George III on 18 October 1763,[14] Richmond was sworn of the Privy Council in 1765 being posted to the court of Louis XV in Paris as British ambassador extraordinary, and in the following year he served briefly in the Rockingham Whig administration as Southern Secretary of State, resigning office on the accession of Pitt the Elder in July 1766.[6] He was promoted Lieutenant-General on 30 April 1770[15] and served briefly as parliamentary Leader of the Whigs in Opposition in 1771 when Rockingham's wife was ill.[6] Richmond's strongly pro-Patriot sympathies earned him the epithet "the Radical Duke."[16]

In policy debates leading up to the American War of Independence, Richmond was a firm supporter of the Patriots, initiating the parliamentary debate in 1778 which called for the removal of British forces from the Thirteen Colonies, during which Pitt (now Earl of Chatham) died from a heart condition.[6] Nevertheless, as Lord-Lieutenant, he raised the Sussex Militia for home defence, taking personal command as Colonel of the Regiment until 1804, resigning in view of his advanced age.[17][18]

Richmond also advocated a policy of concession in regards to British policy towards Ireland, coining the phrase "a Union of Hearts" which remained in use long after his political lifetime.[19] In 1779 Richmond brought forward a motion for retrenchment of the Civil List, and in 1780 he embodied in a Bill proposals for parliamentary reform, which included male suffrage, annual parliaments and equal electoral areas.[20][6] In 1787, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.[21] Richmond joined the Second Rockingham ministry as Master-General of the Ordnance in March 1782;[20] he was appointed a Knight of the Garter on 17 April 1782[22] and promoted to general on 20 November 1782.[23] He resigned as Master-General of the Ordnance when the Fox–North coalition came to power in April 1783.[6]

In January 1784 he joined the first Pitt ministry, again serving as Master-General of the Ordnance; in this role he reformed the Department of State, introducing salaries for office holders, establishing a survey of the South Coast (which led to the formation of the Ordnance Survey) and introducing new artillery (leading to the formation of the Royal Horse Artillery).[6] As Master-General of the Ordnance, Richmond's operational headquarters was at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, where he oversaw the Royal Military Repository (established 1778) under its first Commandant, Sir William Congreve.[24] Richmond supervised Congreve's development of the Repository's artillery collection and his gunpowder experiments at the Royal Laboratory, including improvements in powder manufacture and the establishment of facilities at Portsmouth and Plymouth for powder recovery.[25][26]

In 1794, Richmond formally established the Corps of Royal Artillery Drivers by Royal Warrant to provide professional teams for field artillery, complementing his earlier formation of the Royal Horse Artillery and ending the reliance on civilian contractors for moving guns.[27] He further commissioned London gunsmith Henry Nock to design and manufacture a new "Duke of Richmond's musket" to replace the Brown Bess musket. The first practical example of using interchangeable parts, just as Nock succeeded in producing the weapon at scale Richmond lost his post as Master-General, ending the prospect of the weapon being adopted officially. However, similar designs continued to be associated with the Duke.[28]

By now developing strongly Tory persuasions, his alleged desertion of the Reform cause led to accusations of apostasy and an attack on him by Lord Lauderdale in 1792, which almost led to a duel.[6][20] In November 1795, when Thomas Hardy and John Horne Tooke were charged with treason and cited his publications on reform in their defence, Richmond became perceived as a liability to HM Government and was dismissed in February 1795.[6]

Appointed colonel of the Royal Horse Guards on 18 July 1795,[29] he was promoted as Field Marshal on 30 July 1796.[30] On 15 June 1797 he raised a troop-sized horse artillery unit of the Yeomanry Cavalry known as the Duke of Richmond's Light Horse Artillery at his estate of Goodwood House. The unit was equipped with his own design of a curricle gun carriage.[31] In retirement, Richmond developed the family seat enhancing Goodwood's reputation as a sporting estate by adding, alongside his father's cricket pitch, the famous Goodwood Racecourse.[6] He was also a patron of artists such as George Stubbs, Pompeo Batoni, Anton Raphael Mengs, Joshua Reynolds and George Romney.[32]

Personal life

1775 stipple engraving of Mary by William Wynne Ryland after an Angelica Kauffman portrait

Marriage

On 1 April 1757, he married Lady Mary Bruce (died 1796), youngest daughter and co-heiress of Charles Bruce, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury, and his third wife, Lady Caroline Campbell.[3] The wedding was held at the house of Major-General Henry Conway in Warwick Street, St James's, with the consent of the Major-General, one of Lady Mary's guardians, by special licence of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral, given the then vacancy of the See of Canterbury, and performed by the Hon. and Revd Frederick Keppel, then Canon of Windsor and the future Bishop of Exeter.[33] The couple had no children,[3] so that on his death, his brother George's son Charles inherited the titles.[34]

Mistresses and acknowledged offspring

Richmond had extramarital relationships, producing children he acknowledged in his will.[35]

  • Vicomtesse de Cambis

He had a liaison with French aristocrat Gabrielle-Charlotte-Françoise d'Alsace de Hénin-Liétard (Vicomtesse de Cambis;[36] died 1809[37]), wife of General Jacques-François de Cambis (1727–1792), seigneur d'Orsan,[38] niece of Cardinal d'Alsace and sister of the Prince de Chimay.[39]

1796 portrait of Henrietta by George Romney
    • Henrietta Anne le Clerc (1773–1846), grew up in the household of the Duke and was variously called "a protégée of the Duchess" and "a long acknowledged daughter of His Grace".[40] The Duke referred to her in his Will as "Miss Henrietta Anne le Clerc, who resides with me and though Christened by the name of Anne only, is called Henrietta and whom I have [educated?] from her childhood". He bequeathed her an annual income of £2,000.[35] In 1778, aged 5, Henrietta had been brought from France by the Duke's sister Lady Louisa Conolly, to live at Goodwood House.[41]: 265  It was in Henrietta's bedroom at Richmond House where the fire started in 1791 which destroyed that building.[42] By the Duke's will she received the life tenure of West Lavant Park and other lands and farms on the Goodwood Estate. On 28 March 1808, at St James's Church, Westminster, she married Lieutenant-General John Dorrien (1758–1825), late Royal Horse Guards,[43][44][45] by whom she had a son, Charles Dorrien.[46] After her husband's death she turned to the management of her estate, where she bred Merino sheep as well as hunting with Colonel Wyndham's foxhounds.[47]
  • Mrs Mary Bennett

By a woman described as his housekeeper, Richmond had three daughters, acknowledged in his will: Elizabeth, Caroline and Mary.[48] Their mother, Mrs Mary Bennett (1765–1845), described as "his housekeeper",[6] also known at sometime as Mrs Mary Blesard,[49] 30 years his junior.[48] To his daughters from this relationship, he bequeathed the sum of £10,000 each, and to Mrs Bennett he bequeathed his estate at Earl's Court, Kensington.[48]

Death, burial and succession

The 3rd Duke died at Goodwood on 29 December 1806 and was buried in Chichester Cathedral, Sussex.[15] As he left no legitimate children, he was succeeded in his peerage titles by his nephew, Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond and Lennox.[15]

The Sussex Declaration

The Sussex Declaration at Chichester archives

On April 21, 2017, the Harvard Declaration Resources Project announced the discovery at West Sussex Record Office in Chichester, England, of a second parchment manuscript copy of the United States Declaration of Independence.[52] Named the "Sussex Declaration" by historians Danielle Allen and Emily Sneff, it differs from the National Archives version[53] (which the finders refer to as the "Matlack Declaration") in that the signatures on it are not grouped by States. How this manuscript arrived in England is as yet unknown, but the finders believe that the randomness of the signatures points to an origin with signatory James Wilson, who had argued strongly that the Declaration was made not by the States but by the whole people.[54][55] The Sussex Declaration is thought probably to have been brought back to England by the Duke of Richmond.[56]

However, in 2025 Professor Allen, after continued research, wrote of her conviction that the Sussex Declaration was brought from Philadelphia to Lewes, Sussex not by the Duke of Richmond, but by Thomas Paine, on a brief return visit home in 1787, as a gift to the duke, his longtime patron and friend.[57]

Memorials

Both Richmond County, North Carolina and Richmond County, Georgia are named in the 3rd Duke's memory.[58]

Arms

Coat of arms of Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond
Coronet
That of a Duke
Crest
On a Chapeau Gules turned up Ermine a Lion statant guardant Or crowned with a Ducal Coronet Gules and gorged with a Collar compony of four pieces Argent and Gules charged with two Roses of the Last; (Richmond crest with Lennox collar and coronet).
Escutcheon
The Royal Arms of King Charles II of England (viz. grand-quarterly: 1st and 4th, France and England quarterly; 2nd, Scotland; 3rd, Ireland); the whole within a Bordure compony Argent charged with Roses Gules barbed and seeded Proper and the Last; in pretence, an Inescutcheon Gules charged with three Buckles Or (for Aubigny).
Supporters
Dexter: A Unicorn Argent armed, crined and unguled Or, gorged with a Collar compony;
Sinister: An Antelope Argent, also armed, crined and unguled Or, gorged with a Collar compony (as in the Crest).
Motto
En la rose Je fleuris (French: "Like the rose, I flourish")
Orders
Surrounding the Shield, the Garter circlet:
Honi soit qui mal y pense (Shame be to him who thinks evil of it)

References

  1. ↑ Allen, Danielle. Radical Duke: How One Aristocrat -- and the American Revolution -- Transformed Britain. Liveright Publishers 2026. ISBN 978-1631497551
  2. ↑ Olson, Alison Gilbert. The Radical Duke: The Career and Correspondence of Charles Lennox, Third Duke of Richmond, 1735-1808. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1961.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Heathcote, p. 199.
  4. ↑ Allen, Radical Duke, pp. 10-12, 16-17
  5. ↑ Allen, Radical Duke, 32
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Lowe, William C. (2004). "Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16451. Retrieved 21 June 2014. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ↑ "No. 9147". The London Gazette. 7 March 1752. p. 3.
  8. ↑ "No. 9279". The London Gazette. 23 June 1753. p. 2.
  9. ↑ "Carleton, Guy (1st Baron Dorchester)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
  10. ↑ "Lists of Royal Society Fellows" (PDF). Royal Society. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  11. ↑ "No. 9590". The London Gazette. 8 June 1756. p. 2.
  12. ↑ "No. 9789". The London Gazette. 6 May 1758. p. 2.
  13. ↑ Brereton & Savoury, p. 41.
  14. ↑ "No. 10357". The London Gazette. 15 October 1763. p. 1.
  15. 1 2 3 Heathcote, p. 200.
  16. ↑ Yuhas, Alan (22 April 2017). "Rare parchment manuscript of US Declaration of Independence found in England". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  17. ↑ Western, pp. 199, 213, 311, 327.
  18. ↑ Hay, p. 344.
  19. ↑ "Duke of Richmond". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  20. 1 2 3 One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "Richmond, Earls and Dukes of". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 306.
  21. ↑ "Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond". American Philosophical Society Member History. American Philosophical Society. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  22. ↑ "No. 12288". The London Gazette. 16 January 1782. p. 1.
  23. ↑ "No. 12391". The London Gazette. 23 September 1782. p. 1.
  24. ↑ "Our History". Royal Artillery Museum.
  25. ↑ Morriss, Roger (2010). The Foundations of British Maritime Ascendancy: Resources, Logistics and the State, 1755-1815. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 440. ISBN 9780521768092.
  26. ↑ Klein, Ursula; Spary, E. C., eds. (2010). Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe: Between Market and Laboratory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226439686.
  27. ↑ Duncan, Francis (1879). History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, Volume II. Project Gutenberg.
  28. ↑ Hood, Jamie; Harding, David; Williams, David (3 July 2025). "'The Duke's Lock': a study of the interchangeability of Henry Nock's Board of Ordnance 'screwless' lock. Part 3: adaptation, adjustment and legacy". Arms & Armour. 22 (2): 306–7. doi:10.1080/17416124.2025.2572193. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
  29. ↑ "No. 13796". The London Gazette. 14 July 1795. p. 741.
  30. ↑ "No. 13918". The London Gazette. 2 August 1796. p. 743.
  31. ↑ Barlow & Smith, p. 7.
  32. ↑ "Goodwood House painting collection". Goodwood. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  33. ↑ The Register of Marriages solemnized in the Parish Church of St James within the Liberty of Westminster & County of Middlesex. 1754-1765. No. 811. 1 April 1757.
  34. ↑ Stanley, George F.G. (1983). "Lennox, Charles, 4th Duke of Richmond and Lennox". In Halpenny, Francess G. (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. V (1801–1820) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
  35. 1 2 "The Literary Panorama, and National Register, Volume 2". 1807. p. 1088.
  36. ↑ "The French Connection" (PDF). www.goodwood.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2016.
  37. ↑ Died at Richmond Green in Surrey, apparently in the household of Lady Ailesbury and her daughters (Elle s'établit à Richmond Green et elle prit en affection une certaine lady Ailesbury et ses filles)
  38. ↑ Grand Armorial de France, Henri Jougla de Morenas, Tome I (1934), p. 165
  39. ↑ She had also been the mistress of Edward Gibbon (Edward Gibbon: History Books, Essays & Autobiographical Writings)
  40. ↑ The Gentleman's Magazine, 1807. 1807.
  41. ↑ Brian Fitzgerald (1957). Letters of Lady Louisa Conolly and William, Marquis of Kildare (2nd Duke of Leinster). Correspondence of Emily Duchess of Leinster (1731–1814). Vol. 3. Irish Manuscripts Commission. ISBN 9780903532211. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  42. ↑ Burke, Edmund (1824). Annual Register of 1791.
  43. ↑ "Release by Charles Dorrien of Ash Dean in West-bourne, esq. | The National Archives". Discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  44. ↑ "Grant of an annuity from Lord John George Lennox to James Brownson of Norwich, esq., secured on properties [named] in Sussex. | The National Archives". Discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  45. ↑ Obituary, The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 95, Part 1; Volume 137. 1825.
  46. ↑ harvard.edu
  47. ↑ "Goodwood: The French Connection".
  48. 1 2 3 Peill, James (2019). Glorious Goodwood: A Biography of England's Greatest Sporting Estate. Little Brown Book Group. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-4721-2823-2.
  49. ↑ "Grant of an annuity from Lord John George Lennox to James Brownson of Norwich, esq., secured on properties [named] in Sussex". National Archives. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  50. ↑ Harris, Samela (22 November 2011). "First lady Maria recognised at last". The Advertiser. Retrieved 27 October 2025.
  51. ↑ julia. "epitaphs". Florin.ms. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  52. ↑ Wang, Amy B. (24 April 2017). "A rare copy of the Declaration of Independence has been found — in England". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  53. ↑ www.archives.gov
  54. ↑ Yuhas, Alan (22 April 2017). "Rare parchment copy of US Declaration of Independence found in England". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  55. ↑ "The Sussex Declaration". Declaration Resources Project. Harvard University. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  56. ↑ "Rare Parchment American Declaration of Independence Found in Chichester Records Office". 24 April 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  57. ↑ Allen, Danielle. "Secrets of a Radical Duke". The Atlantic (November 2025): 83.
  58. ↑ Krakow, Kenneth K. (1975). Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins (PDF). Macon, GA: Winship Press. p. 188. ISBN 0-915430-00-2.

Sources

Further reading

  • Allen, Danielle. Radical Duke: How One Aristocrat -- and the American Revolution -- Transformed Britain. Liveright Publishers 2026. ISBN 978-1631497551
  • Olson, Alison Gilbert. The Radical Duke: The Career and Correspondence of Charles Lennox, Third Duke of Richmond, 1735-1808. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1961.
  • Reese, M. M. Goodwood's Oak: The Life and Times of the Third Duke of Richmond, Lennox, and Aunigny. Chichester: Phillimore 1987.