George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, KG,GCSI,CIE,VD,PC (24 October 1827 – 9 July 1909), styled Viscount Goderich from 1833 to 1859 and known as the Earl of Ripon in 1859 and as the Earl de Grey and Ripon from 1859 to 1871, was a British politician and Viceroy and Governor General of India who served in every Liberal cabinet between 1861 and 1908.
Ripon served on Sir Henry Ellis' British special mission to the Brussels Conference on the affairs of Italy in 1848–49.[1] Although his father had been a Tory, Ripon was first a Whig and later a Liberal. He entered the House of Commons as one of the two members for Hull in 1852.[3] Both he and his party colleague James Clay[4] were unseated in 1853 by petition over claims of widespread corruption in their election, of which they were exonerated of any knowledge.[4]: 49–53 He was returned for Huddersfield later in 1853[5] and for the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1857.[6]
When Gladstone returned to power in 1880 he appointed Ripon Viceroy of India,[11] an office he held until 1884. During his time in India, Ripon introduced legislation (the Ilbert Bill, named for the legal member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, Courtenay Ilbert) that would have granted native Indians more legal rights, including the right of Indian judges to judge Europeans in court. Though progressive in its intent, the legislation was scuppered by Europeans living in India who did not want to be tried by a native judge.[12] In this Ripon was supported by Florence Nightingale, who also backed his efforts to obtain a Bengal land tenancy bill (eventually the Bengal Tenancy Act 1885) that would improve the situation of the peasants.[13] In 1882 he repealed the controversial Vernacular Press Act of 1878 passed by Lytton.[14] He also promoted the Indian Famine Codes.
He was also instrumental in supporting Dietrich Brandis to reorganize the Madras Forest Department and expand systematic forestconservancy in India. In 1883, Lord Ripon joined a shooting party organised by the Maharaja of Darbhanga which had a total bag of 1683, including 4 tigers, 47 buffaloes, 280 pigs and 467 deer. (The remainder was ″small game″.) There was some criticism at ″... such wholesale destruction, particularly as it happens to be the breeding season.″[15]
He is still revered in Chennai (formerly Madras), India as "Lord Ripon engal appan" meaning: Lord Ripon, our father. The Corporation of Chennai's Ripon Building was named for him, as well as the town of Riponpet in the Shivamogga district in the state of Karnataka. In Calcutta, Ripon Street was named for him. The Ghanta Ghar Multan or Clock Tower of Multan in Pakistan was named Ripon Building and the hall of the same building was named Ripon Hall.[citation needed] The Ripon Club in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) founded in 1884 by the Parsis for their community members, was named after him.[16]
As noted by Neil Smith, Ripon's liberalism had roots in the mid-nineteenth century, but his political views "shifted with the times". According to Smith, "he was greatly interested in labour questions, deeply sympathetic to labour aspirations and believed the state might interfere with wages and that the state had a duty to deal with unemployment".[18]
Lord Ripon was a Freemason, who served as Provincial Grand Master of the West Riding and Deputy Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England from 1861 to 1869, and ultimately as Grand Master from 1870 until his conversion to Catholicism in 1874.[1] His conversion to Catholicism was met by astonishment in the political world and accusations of disloyalty.[21]
Following his conversion he was generous in supporting Catholic educational and charitable works. He was president of the Society of St Vincent de Paul from 1899 until his death and a great supporter of St. Joseph's Catholic Missionary Society and St Wilfrid's Church in Ripon.
Lord Ripon married his cousin Henrietta Anne Theodosia Vyner, daughter of Henry Vyner and his wife Lady Mary Gertrude Robinson, daughter of Thomas Robinson, 2nd Earl de Grey, on 8 April 1851. They had one son and one daughter:[23]
Lady Ripon died in February 1907, aged 73. Lord Ripon survived her by two years and died of heart failure at Studley Royal Park[19] in July 1909, aged 81. He was buried at St Mary's, Studley Royal[19] and was succeeded in the marquessate and other titles by his only son, Frederick Oliver.[19] His estate was assessed for probate with a value of £127,292. 15s. 8d. (equivalent to £16.8 million in 2023[24]).[25]
References
^ abcdeWhite, Geoffrey H., ed. (1949). The Complete Peerage, Volume XI. St Catherine's Press. p. 4.
^Foster, Joseph (1888). Alumni Oxonienses, 1715–1886. Oxford University Press. p. 1213.
^ abcdWhite, Geoffrey H., ed. (1949). The Complete Peerage, Volume XI. St Catherine's Press. p. 5.
^Kelly's Handbook of the Titled, Landed and Official Classes 1909. Kelly's. p. 1386.
^Quinn, Dermot (1993). Patronage and Piety: The Politics of English Roman Catholicism, 1850-1900. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. pp. 87–90. ISBN0804719969.
^Pine, L G, The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms. London, UK, Heraldry Today, 1972.
1 Following the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. 2 As representatives of George VI in his role as King of India (1947–50). 3 As representatives of George VI and then Elizabeth II in their roles as King and Queen of Pakistan, respectively.