Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton

The Right Honourable The Lord Houghton FRS
Lord Houghton.
Personal details
Born	19 June 1809 London, England
Died	11 August 1885 (1885-08-12) (aged 76) Vichy, France
Nationality	British
Political party	Tory Whig
Spouse(s)	Hon. Annabel Crewe (d. 1874)
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, FRS (19 June 1809 – 11 August 1885) was an English poet, patron of literature and politician.

Background and education

Milnes was born in London, the son of Robert Pemberton Milnes, of Fryston Hall, Castleford, West Yorkshire, and the Honourable Henrietta, daughter of Robert Monckton-Arundell, 4th Viscount Galway. He was educated privately, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827.^[1] There he was drawn into a literary set, and became a member of the famous Apostles Club, which then included Alfred Lord Tennyson, Arthur Hallam, Richard Chenevix Trench, Joseph Williams Blakesley, and others. After graduating with an M.A. in 1831, Milnes travelled abroad, spending some time at the University of Bonn.

He went to Italy and Greece, and published in 1834 a volume of Memorials of a Tour in some Parts of Greece, describing his experiences.^[2]

Political career

Milnes returned to London in 1837, and was elected to Parliament as member for Pontefract as a Conservative. In parliament he interested himself particularly in the question of copyright and the conditions of reformatory schools. He left Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel's party over the Corn Law controversy, and was afterwards identified in politics with Lord Palmerston. His easy good nature had the effect that his political career was viewed with less seriousness by his contemporaries than it might otherwise have been. In 1848, he went to Paris to see something of the revolution, and to fraternise with both sides. On his return he wrote, as a ‘Letter to Lord Lansdowne,’ 1848.^[2]

During the Chartist riots of 1848, Matthew Arnold wrote to his mother:

Tell Miss Martineau it is said here that Monckton Milnes refused to be sworn in a special constable, that he might be free to assume the post of President of the Republic at a moment's notice.^[3]

In 1863, Palmerston elevated Milnes to the peerage as Baron Houghton, of Great Houghton in the West Riding of the County of York.^[4]

George W. E. Russell said of him: "As years advanced he became not (as the manner of most men is) less Liberal, but more so; keener in sympathy with all popular causes; livelier in his indignation against monopoly and injustice."^[5]

Literary career

Milnes' literary career was often influenced by church matters. He wrote a tract in 1841, which was praised by John Henry Newman. He took part in the discussion about "Essays and Reviews", defending the tractarian position in One Tract More (1841). He published two volumes of verse in 1838, Memorials of Residence upon the Continent and Poems of Many Years, Poetry for the People in 1840 and Palm Leaves in 1844. He also wrote a Life and Letters of Keats in 1848, the material for which was largely provided by the poet's friend, Charles Armitage Brown. Milnes' ballads were among the most popular of their day.^[2] In 1868, Lord Houghton was elected to the Royal Society.^[6] In 1870, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.^[7]

Despite his piety, he had apparently an almost unsurpassed collection of erotic literature,^[8] which he bequeathed to the British Library, a collection known to few in his lifetime. A man whom his biographer Saunders said, "had many fine tastes and some coarse ones,"^[2] Milnes has been considered a possible author of The Rodiad, a pornographic poem on the subject of flagellation.^[9]^[10]

However, his chief distinctions were his sense of literary merit in others, and the way he fostered it. He was surrounded by the most brilliant men of his time, many of whom he had been the first to acclaim. His reputation rests largely on the part he played, as a man of influence in society and in moulding public opinion on literary matters, in connection with his large circle of talented friends. He secured a pension for Tennyson, helped to make Ralph Waldo Emerson known in Britain, and was one of the earliest champions of Algernon Charles Swinburne. He helped David Gray by writing a preface for The Luggie.^[2] He helped to obtain a job for Coventry Patmore at the British Museum. He was, in the traditional sense, a patron of literature, who never abused the privileges of his position.

Personal life

Milnes was a persistent suitor of Florence Nightingale (who finally refused to marry him), and one of her staunchest supporters along with the statesman Sidney Herbert. On 30 July 1851, he married the Honourable Annabel, daughter of John Crewe, 2nd Baron Crewe.^[2] She died in 1874. Lord Houghton died at Vichy, France, in August 1885, aged 76, and was buried at Fryston. He was succeeded in the barony by his son, Robert, who became a prominent Liberal statesman and was created Earl of Crewe in 1895 and Marquess of Crewe in 1911.

The novelist Florence Henniker was his daughter.^[11]

Milnes took interest in parapsychology, he was a member of the Society for Psychical Research.^[12]

Styles of address

1809-1837: Mr Richard Monckton Milnes
1837-1863: Mr Richard Monckton Milnes MP
1863-1868: The Right Honourable The Lord Houghton^[4]
1868-1885: The Right Honourable The Lord Houghton FRS^[6]

References

↑ "Milnes, Richard Monckton (MLNS827RM)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Saunders 1894.
↑ George W. E. Russell, Collections & Recollections (Revised edition, Smith Elder & Co, London, 1899), at page 53.
1 2 The London Gazette: no. 22760. p. 3945. 7 August 1863.
↑ George W. E. Russell, Collections & Recollections (Revised edition, Smith Elder & Co, London, 1899), at page 57.
1 2 "Fellows 1660-2007" (PDF). Royal Society. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
↑ American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
↑ Hyde, Harford Montgomery (1965). A history of pornography. Heinemann. p. 14.
↑ Whyte, Christopher (1995). Gendering the nation: studies in modern Scottish literature. Edinburgh University Press. p. 216. ISBN 0-7486-0619-X.
↑ Nelson, James G. (2000). Publisher to the Decadents: Leonard Smithers in the Careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson. Pennsylvania State University Press. p. 10. ISBN 0-271-01974-3.
↑ Pite, Ralph (2006). Thomas Hardy:The Guarded Life. London: Picador. p. 329. ISBN 978-0330481861.
↑ Oppenheim, Janet. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-0521347679

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Saunders, Thomas Bailey (1894). "Milnes, Richard Monckton". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

External links

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Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Richard Monckton Milnes

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Gully Viscount Pollington	Member of Parliament for Pontefract 1837–1863 With: William Thomas Stanley-Massey-Stanley 1837–1841 Viscount Pollington 1841–1847 Samuel Martin 1847–1851 Beilby Lawley 1851–1852 Benjamin Oliveira 1852–1857 William Wood 1857–1859 William Overend 1859–1860 Hugh Childers 1860–1863	Succeeded by Hugh Childers Samuel Waterhouse
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Houghton 1863–1885	Succeeded by Robert Offley Ashburton Crewe-Milnes

Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society

19th century	1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1843–1845 Lord Ashley 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby 1857–1859 Lord Stanley 1859–1861 Lord John Russell 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone 1869–1871 William Newmarch 1871–1873 William Farr 1873–1875 William Guy 1875–1877 James Heywood 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey 1880–1882 James Caird 1882–1884 Robert Giffen 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson 1886–1888 George Goschen 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat 1892–1894 Charles Booth 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney 1899–1900 Henry Fowler 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury

20th century	1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow 1906–1907 Richard Martin 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth 1914–1915 The Lord Welby 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott 1924–1926 Udny Yule 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon 1928–1930 A. William Flux 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp 1932–1934 The Lord Meston 1934–1936 Major Greenwood 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty 1941 Hector Leak 1941–1943 William Beveridge 1943–1945 Charles Ernest Snow 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton 1947–1949 David Heron 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy 1955–1957 Egon Pearson 1957–1959 Harry Campion 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett 1967–1968 Frank Yates 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard 1972–1973 Harold Wilson 1973–1974 D. J. Finney 1974–1975 Henry Daniels 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe 1977–1978 Henry Wynn 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser 1980–1982 David Cox 1982–1984 Peter Armitage 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer 1985–1986 John Nelder 1986–1987 James Durbin 1987–1989 John Kingman 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew 1995–1997 Adrian Smith 1997–1999 R. N. Curnow 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley

21st century	2001–2003 Peter Green 2003–2005 Andy Grieve 2005–2007 Tim Holt 2008–2009 David Hand 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand) 2011–2012 Valerie Isham 2013–John Pullinger

Category List

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 120711335 LCCN: n83180337 ISNI: 0000 0001 1887 1208 GND: 11753532X SUDOC: 127899766 BNF: cb162782666 (data) MusicBrainz: 9358e456-9056-4f6e-b1ad-8456045ed115 NLA: 35207814 NKC: jn20011018509 BNE: XX1662167

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