Beauchamp v. Wynn Lawsuit Papers

Papers relating to the lawsuit between the Right Honourable Henry, 5th Earl Beauchamp, and the Right Honourable Frederick, 6th Earl Beauchamp, plaintiffs, and Charles Wynn of Nostell Priory, Yorkshire.

Frederick Lygon, sixth Earl Beauchamp (1830-1891), Church of England layman and politician, was born on 10 November 1830. He was educated at Eton College (1844-47), and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 15 December 1848. He graduated BA in 1852 and was a fellow of All Souls College from 1852 until 1866. He did not take Anglican orders, but instead became an ecclesiastical layman, representing the high-church party on committees and commissions, and contributing assiduously to journals and newspapers. As a religious author his most influential work was The day hours of the Church of England, newly transcribed and arranged according to the prayer book and the Authorised Version of the Bible, published anonymously in 1858.

From 1857 Lygon also developed a parliamentary career, speaking frequently in the Commons and later in the Lords. From March 1857 to April 1863 he sat as a Conservative for Tewkesbury, briefly holding office as a lord of the Admiralty in March 1859. In 1863, on the death of his father, he succeeded his elder brother Henry as MP for West Worcestershire, a seat he held until he himself became sixth Earl Beauchamp in March 1866. On inheriting the Beauchamp estates one of his first tasks had been to complete the reconstruction of Madresfield Court begun by the fifth earl, including the provision of a chapel.

In February 1868 he married Lady Mary Catherine Stanhope (b. 1844), daughter of Philip Henry Stanhope, fifth Earl Stanhope (1805-1875), who died in 1876 having had five children, the eldest of whom, William Lygon (1872-1938), was to become the seventh Earl Beauchamp. Two years later, on 24 September 1878, he married Lady Emily Annora Charlotte Pierrepont (1853-1935), daughter of the third Earl Manvers, with whom he had a further four children. His role as a conscientious Victorian landlord, combined with his enthusiasm for education and ecclesiastical architecture, resulted in the building of schools and chapels on his properties. He was involved locally in the foundation of Malvern College and the Alice Ottley School for Girls, Worcester, and at Oxford in the early years of Keble College and later in the establishment of Pusey House. He was made lord lieutenant of Worcestershire in 1876. He died on 19 February 1891 at Madresfield Court and was buried at Madresfield.

Source: R.J. Olney, 'Lygon, Frederick, sixth Earl Beauchamp (1830-1891)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. By permission of Oxford University Press - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/17245.