Lady Sophia Frances Cust, later Lady Tower (1811-1882), John Hume Egerton, later Viscount Alford, MP (1812-1851) and Captain, The. Hon. Charles Henry Cust (1813-1875) as a boy
British (English) School
Category
Art / Drawings and watercolours
Date
Unknown
Materials
Glass, Paper, Pine
Measurements
270 x 230 mm
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 434325
Summary
Pencil heightened in white, on paper, Lady Sophia Frances Cust, later Lady Tower (1811-1882), John Hume Egerton, later Viscount Alford, MP (1812-1851) and Captain The. Hon. Charles Henry Cust (1813-1875) as a boy, British (English) School. Shown grouped in an interior and dated 1829. Lady Sophia Frances Cust was born on 14 April 1811. She was the daughter of John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow (1779-1853)and Amelia Sophia Hume (1787/8-1814) She married Christopher Theron Tower (d.1884) on 10 February 1836. She died on 21 December 1882 at age 71. John Hume (Cust) (subsequently Egerton-Cust), Viscount Alford (1812-1851), elder son of John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow (1779-1853), and his first wife, Sophia Hume (1787/8-1814). Married on 10th February1841 Lady Marianne Margaret Compton (1817-1888), eldest daughter of Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton (1790-1851) and Margaret Douglas-Maclean-Clephane (d.1830), who bore him two children: (i) John William Spencer Egerton Cust (1842-1867) 3rd Baron and 2nd Earl Brownlow (ii) Adelbert Wellilngton Brownlow Cust (1844-1921), 4th Baron and last Earl Brownlow. John Hume Cust, changed his name in 1839 to John Hume Home-Cust and changed it again in 1849 to John Hume Egerton.He was an amateur sculptor [taught by Elisabeth Ney?], and a carving he made in 1848 entitled ‘Jacob wrestling with an angel’ used to occupy a niche over the fireplace in the Chapel Gallery (visible only in one early photograph, found by Mrs. Westwood in the Belton archive). MP for Bedfordshire from1835-1851. From his mother Sophia, who was the only child of Lady Amelia Egerton, the sister and heiress of the unmarried General John William Egerton, 7th Earl of Bridgwater (1753-1823), he inherited in 1849 the vast Egerton estates, worth some £70,000 a year. These included Ashridge Park in Hertfordshire. 'The prospect of owning Ashridge - a vast sprawling Gothic fantasy in the grand manner - must have appealed to the young Viscount, whose tastes ran to the medieval, as did those of so many Tory romantics reared on a diet of Ivanhoe and Kenilworth. Alford was one of the thirteen knights-in-armour who paid homage to the Queen of Love and Beauty before entering the lists at the famous - and rain-sodden - tournament at Eglington Castle in Ayrshire in August 1839. He was also instrumental in providing the crowds gathered to watch the jousting with the only moment of excitement in an otherside distrous affair. In the final 'grand equestrian melee with broadswords, the Marquess of Waterford hit him on the head, and hoth opponents lost their tempers and started whacking each other in earnest. The Knight Marshall had to step in and separate them'. [Adrian Tinniswood]. He died on 3 January 1851 at age 38 at Ashridge Park, Berkhamsted and was buried on 13 January 1851 at Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire. Hon. Charles Henry Cust was born on 27 September 1813. He was the son of John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow (1779-1853) and Amelia Sophia Hume (1787/8-1814) He married Caroline Sophia Macdonald (d.1887), daughter of Ranald George Macdonald of Clanranald and Moidart and of Benbecula (1788-1873) and Lady Caroline Anne Edgcumbe (d.1824), on 8 September 1842. He was a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards. MP for North Shropshire. Child of Hon. Charles Henry Cust and Caroline Sophia Macdonald 1.Alice Marian (1845-1919) married Lt.-Col. Allan Roger Charles Porcelli-Cust Charles Henry Cust died on 23 May 1875 at age 61.
Makers and roles
British (English) School, artist previously catalogued as attributed to George Richmond RA (Brompton 1809 – London 1896), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Henry Edridge, RA (Paddington 1769 - London 1821), artist