John Hume Egerton, Viscount Alford (1812-1851)
Sir William Charles Ross, RA (London 1794 – London 1860)
Category
Art / Miniatures
Date
1842
Materials
Watercolour on ivory
Measurements
120 x 80 mm
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 435998
Summary
Portrait miniature, watercolour painting on ivory, John Hume Egerton, Viscount Alford (1812-1851) by Sir William Charles Ross, RA (London 1794 – London 1860). Three-quarter length porttait turned to the left, head turned to the right and gazing to the right, in a buff suit and a blue robne as a medieval warrier holding a sword in its red scabard. Staring blue eyes, fair wavy hair and Newgate fringe, fresh complexion, aged about 30. Armour to the left, crimson curtain background. Signed and dated 1842 on the reverse. 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.
Makers and roles
Sir William Charles Ross, RA (London 1794 – London 1860), artist