Vol 3 Issue 2: Londonderry Chronicles

1 Hetton-le-Hole Herald The Newsletter for Hetton Local History Group Volume ..3...... Issue ..2...... Date...Oct 2011..... Information & Calendar 17th century. This was proba- New publications :- We have four book bly one of the earliest exam- currently at the printers which we expect ples of capitalist enterprise to be ready for sale early in November. 1. Re-publication of the Community Assn and gave rise to the impor- Book of 1973. 2. The 1841 census of Het- tance of the Rainton area. ton and Easington Lane. 3. Articles by C A Smith. 4.East Rainton by Bob Hope. Most of the coal , found quite close to the surface, was sold November meeting - Members’ research reports. within the local area, probably as far away as Durham City which was growing at this December :- Commemoration of the time. His great-grandson the Elemore Pit disaster exhibition Reverend Sir Henry Vane married Frances Tempest, The Londonderry Chronicles who was the daughter of the owner of a number of pits in the Penshaw and Rainton ar- During the latter part of eas. Thus the Vane Tempest the 17th century a significant dynasty was formed. development in coal mining took place in the Rainton area. The above mentioned The developments were due to were the grandparents of the efforts of Sir George Frances Anne Emily Vane- Vane who had become a share- Tempest who inherited the holder in the “Grand Lease” Vane Tempest wealth from following the Civil War in the her father in 1813. At the 2 time Lady Frances was a mere mining developments in thirteen years of age having County Durham. Sir Piers been born at the start of the Tempest fought at Agincourt century. Naturally the assets and the family acquired much on her inheritance were in the of their wealth from the hands of a group of trustees Dissolution of the monaster- and this continued until she ies. The mother of the Lady married some six years later Frances Anne was the Count- and beyond. ess of Antrim thus there was already an Irish connection In 1818 her collieries had prior to her marriage. an operating profit of £60,000, an immense amount The Londonderry fam- of money at the time. The land on which the collieries stood was leased from the Dean and Chapter of Durham who were at times displeased with the amount of rent being paid and refused to renew the lease in 1814-15. Eventually the diffi- culties were overcome and the family continued to mine coal. The Vane-Tempests were members of an ancient and important family, made up of the Tempests of Wynyard, whereas the Vanes a family from Long Newton near to ily, on the other hand, had Stockton were responsible for occupied an important place some of the most important in the political and commer- 3 cial life of Britain for more the vast changes taking place than 100 years. They were on the continent through the also part of the growing actions of Napoleon. He rep- European and World political resented England at the Con- sphere. gress of Vienna, the Treaty of Paris and the Congress of The initiator of this po- Aix-la-Chapelle, the three litical dominance was Alexan- great assemblies which deter- der Stewart of Ballylawn mined much of the fortunes Castle, County Donegal and of Europe and crushed a great Mount Stewart, County deal of the revolutionary Down. His son Robert, born spirit sweeping Europe. He in 1739, continued in the had a general bad temper, politics of Northern Ireland lacked intellectual stability and came to the fore in 1783 and was most unpopular, often when the Irish Parliament because of his manners. From was reformed and started to the first to the last he was act on its own, although still disliked, even hated and al- guided by the English Parlia- ways ready to drive through ment. He was made a Baron unpopular political decisions. in 1789, a Viscount (Castlereagh) and an Earl In 1821 he succeeded as (Londonderry) in 1896. second Marquess of London- Robert Stewart who eventu- derry following his father’s ally became second Marquess death and in the following of Londonderry was better year following a period of known as Lord Castlereagh and was second only to Pitt in mental instability committed the English Parliament. Not suicide. only did he support England’s His half brother Charles efforts through Wellington William Stewart was born on in Europe but he coped with 4 18th May 1778 and was known ensign. He was a small man, as the Honourable Charles barely five feet in height but Stewart from 1789 until 1813 soon claimed a reputation for then Sir Charles Stewart having a fighting spirit. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Donnenwerth in 1797 but still managed to go through the Irish insurrec- tion in 1798. In 1800 he was elected to the Irish House of Commons as the Tory repre- sentative for Thomastown, County Kildare, then shortly afterwards he exchanged this seat for that of Londonderry County. He was a member of the Irish Parliament until Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of 1801 then represented Lon- Londonderry , Lord Castlereagh donderry in the English Parlia- ment until 1814. For a short from 1813 to 1814 then Lord time he engaged as Under Stewart from 1814 to 1822 Secretary of War in the Eng- whereupon he became the lish Parliament (1807). During Third Marquess of London- this early period of his politi- derry. cal career he married for the first time. His first wife was Born in Dublin Charles Lady Catherine Bligh, daugh- Stewart was educated at Eton ter of the third Earl of and at the age of 16 commis- Darnley and they were mar- sioned as a lieutenant in the ried in 1804. She was three Irish Dragoons although he years older than Londonderry. had served two years as an 5 They had one son, Frederick pointment as Ambassador to William Stewart. Unfortu- Austria. In 1815 he fought in nately his wife died during the Battle of Waterloo and the night of the 10th-11th was with Wellington when he February 1812, after a mar- marched into Paris. riage lasting a mere eight In 1819 the British Am- years. At the time Lord Lon- bassador, now 40 years of age donderry was fighting, on ac- married for the second time. tive service in the Peninsular. He married Frances Anne He distinguished him- Emily Vane Tempest aged just self in the Peninsular Wars 19 years a then wealthy heir- under Sir John Moore and ess. In 1822 he succeeded from 1809 until 1813 was Ad- his half brother as third Mar- jutant-General to the army quess of Londonderry and a under Wellington. This service year later he was created was to make both Stewart Earl Vane and Viscount Sea- and Wellington firm friends in ham with remainder to his the years to come. He was heirs made by his second recognised as having desper- wife. ate courage as a cavalry There was no doubt that leader and was renowned both parties to the marriage throughout the army for his got on very well together bravery. both in their private lives and The years following 1813 in the business relationship were a mixture for him of together. The fact that he both political positions and had to change his direction army assignments. In 1813 he from soldier and politician to went o Berlin as Ambassador business person was one that and Military Commissioner. he grasped with both hands This was followed as an ap- and the pair became formida- 6 ble partners in the competi- ing to Sir Ralph Milbanke tion for coal. came up for sale. Sir Ralph at the time was cash strapped Much of Frances’ coal having spent large amounts of business was run by agents money on electioneering over appointed by the Court of two decades as well as build- Chancery as part of the ar- ing and enlarging Seaham Hall rangement established by from the early 1790s. The fi- guardians and trustees when nal straw came about in 1815 she was younger. Known to the when it was necessary to pro- family as “Fighting Charlie”, vide a dowry of £20,000 for prior to his marriage he had his daughter and only child, never been to County Durham Anne Isabella, in her marriage previously. He was not a rich to the poet Lord Byron in man, having most of his January 1815. Sir Ralph and wealth tied up in land and in- his wife decided to move back heritances in Northern Ire- to their ancestral home at land. The lack of ready cash Halnaby in North Yorkshire made life difficult for him leaving Seaham Hall to be the when his ambitions exceeded home of the Byrons. Lord his reality. To his credit, how- Byron, however had other ever, he brought to the mar- ideas since he found the life riage strong connections at Seaham to be boring and reaching as high as royalty unexciting as well as being out and an immense ability to in- of the mainstream of London fluence and direct others in- and indeed European social cluding his many friends in life at the time. high places. Meanwhile, an inheri- A mere two years after tance passed to Lady Mil- his marriage the Seaham Es- banke in April 1815 from her tate including Dalden, belong- brother’s Wentworth estates 7 and this saved her husband the trouble of engaging an en- from potential bankruptcy.

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