| Admin_History | Charles Spencer Cowper was the third and youngest son of the 5th Earl Cowper by his marriage to Emily Lamb, sister of British Prime Minister Lord Melbourne. Born in 1816, Charles was appointed a clerk in the Foreign Office in 1834. He was 21 when his father died and his brother George succeeded as 6th Earl Cowper. In 1839, Charles's mother married Lord Palmerston, the future Prime Minister who was then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. For the previous five years, Charles had worked as Palmerstons' private secretary in the Foreign Office. He then became Secretary of the British Legation at Florence. He was Charge d'Affaires for Florence until 1841 when transferred to Stockholm. He left the diplomatic service in 1843 when he succeeded to the Sandringham estate. In due course, he would sell this estate to the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. His eldest brother George passed away in 1856 and was succeeded by his son as 7th Earl. Charles's second brother William Francis Cowper-Temple was the 1st and last Baron Mount Temple of Mount Temple.
Charles was married twice but had no known children. On 1st September 1852, he married Lady Harriet Anne Frances Gardiner, daughter of Charles John Gardiner, 1st and last Earl of Blessington and Mary Campbell McDougall. The Gardiner family, Earls of Blessington and Viscounts Mountjoy, were the greatest owners of property on the north side. Their principal residence, No. 10 Henrietta Street, was built by Luke Gardiner, Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, and the family resided there for over a century. At the age of 15, Lady Harriet had been married to the fashionable artist and dandy, Count d'Orsay, but the marriage was an unhappy one and the couple seperated in 1838. In the seperation agreement, Lady Harriet paid over £100,000 to d'Orsay's creditors (though even this did not cover all his debts) in exchange for d'Orsay giving up all claims to the Blessington estate. In 1874 all the Gardiner property in Dublin, except Henrietta Street, was sold in one lot for £120,000 to the Hon, Charles Spencer Cowper.
On 11th April 1871, Charles was married secondly to Jessie Mary McLean, daughter of Colonel Clinton McLean. Charles and Jessie had no issue before his death in Rome on 30 March 1879 at age 62.
Jessie Mary Spencer:
Following his death in 1879, the estate of Charles Spencer Cowper passed to his widow Jessie Mary McLean. Part of this inheritance included 'certain land and house property in Dublin and 7,666 acres around Strabane in County Tyrone which was then of considerable value but heavily mortgaged'. According to a valuation made in 1879, these lands showed a surplus of about £50,000. However, since Charles's death, Jessie had borrowed over £10,000, mostly on the security of the property, which, with interest, amounted to £16,000 by 1895. Jessie claimed that half of the £10,000 she borrowed had been to repay her late husbands debts and pay off the mortgage interest. She only took £5000 for herself and that was because 'she had not derived any income from the property referred to, but had relied upon voluntary allowances made to her by relatives, one of whom paid her £600 per annum since 1882'. By 1894, Jessie was in trouble and made an application to have her debts discharged. She ascribed her insolvency to the depreciation in the value of Irish property owing to the non-payment of rents, and to their reduction by the Land Courts. As such, her income from these lands was lower than the amount she was paying out to cover the interest in the mortgage and family loans'. In February 1895, the Judge found in Jessie's favour, agreeing that the economic climate in Ireland had rendered the equity of redemption valueless. As this was beyond Jessie's control, he agreed that she should be given an immediate order of discharge.
Jessie died in Frankfurt on 7th October 1901.
Taken from www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_heroes/hist_hero_cowper.html |