Richard Godolphin Long

Richard Godolphin Long (2 October 1761 – 1 July 1835)[1] was an English banker and Tory politician.

Background

Baptised at West Lavington, Wiltshire a month after his birth, he was the son of Richard Long and his wife Meliora, descendant of Sir John Lambe.[2] Long was a partner in the Melksham Bank, together with his younger brother John Long, John Awdry and Thomas Bruges.[3] In 1799, he purchased Steeple Ashton Manor House and farm,[4] which remained in the family until 1967, and commissioned architect Jeffry Wyattville to build Rood Ashton House in 1808.[5]

Career

In 1794, he was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire.[6] Long entered the British House of Commons in 1806, sitting for Wiltshire until 1818.[1] He was the founder of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry.[7]

Family

On 27 March 1786, he married Florentina Wrey, third daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 6th Baronet,[8] and had by her four daughters and two sons.[9] After a lingering illness Long died aged 73, at Rood Ashton House in his favourite chair, just six weeks after his wife, and was buried in the family's crypt at St John's Church, Steeple Ashton.[8] His older son Walter was himself a member of parliament, representing North Wiltshire.[10] His second daughter Florentina (Flora), having been previously engaged to Henry Cobbe (uncle of Frances Power Cobbe), who had died the day before the proposed marriage,[11] formed a strong attachment to the then elderly poet George Crabbe.[12] Flora and her aunts were frequent visitors of novelist Jane Austen, who referred to Flora as her 'cousin', though their exact relationship is not known.[13] Austen never met Crabbe, but nursed a fantasy of becoming his wife.[14]

Further reading

Inquisition Post Mortem: An Adventurous Jaunt Through a 500 Year History of the Courtiers, Clothiers and Parliamentarians of the Long Family of Wiltshire; Cheryl Nicol

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Leigh Rayment – British House of Commons, Wiltshire". Retrieved 28 July 2009.
  2. ↑ The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, p. 106
  3. ↑ "Wiltshire County Council – Archive Catalogue". Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  4. ↑ "British History Online – A History of the County of Wiltshire". Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  5. ↑ "Lyneham Village, Official Website – History". Retrieved 28 July 2009.
  6. ↑ The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, p. 232
  7. ↑ "ThePeerage – Richard Godolphin Long". Retrieved 23 January 2007.
  8. 1 2 Sylvanus, Urban (1835). The Gentleman's Magazine. part II. London: John Bowyer Nichols and Son. p. 324.
  9. ↑ Burke, John (1838). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of The Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. vol. IV. London: Henry Colburn. p. 65.
  10. ↑ Sylvanus, Urban (1867). The Gentleman's Magazine. part I. London: Bradbury, Evans & Co. p. 399.
  11. ↑ Mitchell, Sally (2004). Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. ISBN 0-8139-2271-2.
  12. ↑ Alexander Meyrick Broadley, Walter Jerrold, George Crabbe (1913). The Romance of an Elderly Poet: A Hitherto Unknown Chapter in the Life of George Crabbe, Revealed by his 10 Years Correspondence with Elizabeth Charter 1815–1825. London: Stanley Paul & Co.
  13. ↑ "Jane Austen Society of North America – Letter to Her Sister Cassandra, 29 May 1809, by Edward, Lord Braybourne". Retrieved 28 July 2009.
  14. ↑ Powell, Neill (2004). George Crabbe: An English Life – 1754–1832. ISBN 0-7126-8999-0.

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Henry Penruddocke Wyndham
Ambrose Goddard		 Member of Parliament for Wiltshire
1806–1818
With: Henry Penruddocke Wyndham 1806–1812
Paul Methuen 1812–1818		 Succeeded by
William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley
Paul Methuen
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