Gerald Wellesley

Not to be confused with Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington.

Gerald Valerian Wellesley, by John & Charles Watkins

"The old Dean", Wellesley as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, April 1876

Gerald Valerian Wellesley (1809 in London – 17 September 1882 in Hazelwood, near Watford) was a Church of England cleric who became the Dean of Windsor.

Family

He was the third son of Henry Wellesley, 1st Baron Cowley (1773–1847) and his first wife, Lady Charlotte Cadogan (c.1781–1853), daughter of Charles Cadogan, 1st Earl Cadogan - the couple divorced in 1810. His father was the younger brother of the 1st Duke of Wellington. On 16 September 1856, at St Mary's, Bryanston Square, London, he married the Hon. Magdalen "Lily" Montagu (1831–1919), daughter of Henry Montagu, 6th Baron Rokeby, and his wife, Magdalen Huxley. Their only child was a son, who died at the age of eighteen in 1883.

Life

Educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge (graduating MA in 1830), he was ordained in 1831.^[1] His first living was a family one at Stratfield Saye (1836–1854), during which he became Queen Victoria's resident chaplain (in 1849), leading to his appointment as Dean in 1854. He was Lord High Almoner from 1870 to 1882.

Tactful and gentlemanly in demeanour, religiously analogous to the queen, and a preacher of short sermons, he became "one of Victoria's most valued advisers",^[2] doing "everything on all sad and happy occasions to make me comfortable"^[3] and acting as an intermediary between her and Gladstone on both ecclesiastical and secular matters. Her appreciation of him was summed up in what she required in his successor as dean:

a tolerant, liberal minded broad church clergyman who at the same time is pleasant socially and is popular with all Members and classes of her Household,—who understands her feelings not only in ecclesiastical but also in social matters—a good kind man without pride.^[4]

Gladstone frequently sought his advice on patronage questions, noting in his diary at the time of Wellesley's death:

‘I reckoned his life the most valuable in the Church of England’.

After his death, he was buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor and his widow was appointed "Extra Woman of the Bedchamber" in November 1882.

References

↑ "Wellesley, Gerald (WLSY826G)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
↑ Dictionary of National Biography
↑ Beloved mama: private correspondence of Queen Victoria and the German crown princess, 1878–1885, ed. R. Fulford (1981), page 125
↑ Arthur Ponsonby, Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria's private secretary: his life from his letters (1942), pages 62–3

Deans of Windsor

Late Medieval	William Mugge Walter Almaly Thomas Butler Richard Kingston John Arundel Thomas Manning John Faux William Morland William Dudley Peter Courtenay Richard Beauchamp Thomas Danett William Bealey John Morgan Christopher Urswick

Early modern	Christopher Bainbridge Thomas Hobbs Nicholas West John Vesey John Clerk Richard Sampson William Franklyn Owen Oglethorpe Hugh Weston John Boxall George Carew William Day Robert Bennet Giles Thomson Anthony Maxey Marco Antonio de Dominis Henry Beaumont Matthew Wren Christopher Wren Edward Hyde Bruno Ryves John Durell Francis Turner Gregory Hascard Thomas Manningham John Robinson The Lord Willoughby de Broke Peniston Booth Frederick Keppel John Harley John Douglas James Cornwallis Charles Manners-Sutton

Late modern	Edward Legge Henry Hobart George Neville-Grenville Gerald Wellesley George Connor Randall Davidson Philip Eliot Albert Baillie Eric Hamilton Robin Woods Launcelot Fleming Michael Mann Patrick Mitchell David Conner

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/31/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.