Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne

Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne PC (29 April 1829 – 6 February 1893), known as E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen, was a British Liberal politician. He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department under Lord Russell in 1866 and under William Ewart Gladstone from 1868 to 1871 and was also Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Gladstone from 1871 to 1874. In 1880 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Brabourne.

Background and education

Born Edward Hugessen Knatchbull, he was the younger son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet, who twice served as Paymaster-General, and his second wife Fanny Catherine Knight, who was a niece of author Jane Austen. In 1849 he assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Hugessen, which was the maiden surname of his father's mother. Knatchbull-Hugessen was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Union.

Political career

In 1857 Knatchbull-Hugessen was elected Member of Parliament for Sandwich, a seat he would hold until 1880.^[1] He served as a Lord of the Treasury under Lord Palmerston from 1859 to 1860, as Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs under Lord Russell in 1866 and under Gladstone from 1868 to 1871 and as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Gladstone from 1871 to 1874.^[2] He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1873^[3] and raised to the peerage as Baron Brabourne, of Brabourne in the County of Kent, in 1880.^[4]

Brabourne edited the first edition of Jane Austen's letters, published in 1884. This edition included about two-thirds of her surviving letters, and was dedicated to Queen Victoria. He inherited the letters after his mother's death in December 1882.^[5] He also wrote short stories, one of which was published in The Gentlewoman in December 1891,^[6] and Stories for My Children in 1869, including Puss-Cat Mew.

He died on 6 February 1893 at Smeeth Paddocks, and was buried at Smeeth, Kent, on 9 February.^[7]

Family

He was twice married: first, on 19 October 1852, at St. Stephen's, Hertfordshire, to Anna Maria Elizabeth, younger daughter of the Rev. Marcus Richard Southwell, vicar of that church, by whom he had two sons and two daughters:^[7]

• Hon. Katharine Cecilia Knatchbull-Hugessen (died 21 March 1926).
• Hon. Eva Mary Knatchbull-Hugessen (d. 23 October 1895).
• Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 2nd Baron Brabourne (5 April 1857 – 29 December 1909).
• Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen, 4th Baron Brabourne (27 November 1863 – 15 February 1933).

Lady Brabourne died on 2 May 1889, and on 3 June 1890 Lord Brabourne remarried Ethel Mary Walker, daughter of Colonel Sir George Gustavus Walker.^[7] They had two children:

• Hon. Adrian Norton Knatchbull-Hugessen (5 July 1891 – 30 March 1976).
• Hon. Alicia Mary Dorothea Knatchbull-Hugessen (18 February 1893 – 15 January 1974).

Lord Brabourne was succeeded by his eldest son from his first marriage, Edward.

Styles of address

• 1829-1857: Mr Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen
• 1857-1873: Mr Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen MP
• 1873-1880: The Right Honourable Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen MP
• 1880-1893: The Right Honourable The Lord Brabourne PC

References

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rae, William Fraser (1901). "Knatchbull-Hugessen, Edward Hugessen". In Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement​. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord Brabourne
• Lord Brabourne edition of Jane Austen's letters
• Works by Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne at Internet Archive
• Works by Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)