Monarch Victoria Prime Minister The Earl Russell Name Edward 1st | Role Politician Succeeded by The Earl Belmore Spouse Maria Southwell (m. 1852) | |
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Died February 6, 1893, Kent, United Kingdom Parents Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet Children Adrian Knatchbull-Hugessen Books The Forest Fairy: Christmas in Switzerland, Puss-cat Mew Similar People Sir Edward Knatchbull - 9th Baronet, James K Hugessen, Jane Austen, Robert Peel | ||
Edward Hugessen Knatchbull-Hugessen, 1st Baron Brabourne (29 April 1829 – 6 February 1893), known as E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen, was a British Liberal politician. He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department under Lord Russell in 1866 and under William Ewart Gladstone from 1868 to 1871 and was also Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Gladstone from 1871 to 1874. In 1880 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Brabourne.
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Background and education
Born Edward Hugessen Knatchbull, he was the younger son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet, who twice served as Paymaster-General, and his second wife Fanny Catherine Knight, who was a niece of author Jane Austen. In 1849 he assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Hugessen, which was the maiden surname of his father's mother. Knatchbull-Hugessen was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Union.
Political career
In 1857 Knatchbull-Hugessen was elected Member of Parliament for Sandwich, a seat he would hold until 1880. He served as a Lord of the Treasury under Lord Palmerston from 1859 to 1860, as Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs under Lord Russell in 1866 and under Gladstone from 1868 to 1871 and as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Gladstone from 1871 to 1874. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1873 and raised to the peerage as Baron Brabourne, of Brabourne in the County of Kent, in 1880.
Literary work
Brabourne edited the first edition of Jane Austen's letters, published in 1884. This edition included about two-thirds of her surviving letters, and was dedicated to Queen Victoria. He inherited the letters after his mother's death in December 1882. He also wrote short stories, one of which was published in The Gentlewoman in December 1891, and Stories for My Children in 1869, including Puss-Cat Mew.
Death
He died on 6 February 1893 at Smeeth Paddocks, and was buried in St Mary the Virgin Churchyard at Smeeth, Kent, on 9 February.
Family
He was twice married: first, on 19 October 1852, at St. Stephen's, Hertfordshire, to Anna Maria Elizabeth, younger daughter of the Rev. Marcus Richard Southwell, vicar of that church, by whom he had two sons and two daughters:
Lady Brabourne died on 2 May 1889, and on 3 June 1890 Lord Brabourne remarried Ethel Mary Walker, daughter of Colonel Sir George Gustavus Walker. They had two children:
Lord Brabourne was succeeded by his eldest son from his first marriage, Edward.