HAMPTON, AROUND AND ABOUT
Things you may not know, or didn’t know you knew!
No 1 NOBLESSE OBLIGE
It is not well known, but in Hampton Court Palace there are many ‘Grace & Favour’ Apartments. These apartments are set aside for those who have given service, in the main, to the Royal Family. The tenants of these apartments may also have performed some form of service to the Country or Monarchy and often found themselves without somewhere to live when they retired. These recipients may have been Servants to the Royal Family, ex-Military, members of the aristocracy (on their ‘uppers’) or even politicians, quite a few were widows of those who had given public service. The apartments are usually for life, always assuming ‘good behaviour’.
In the 1851 Lord and Lady Gordon, their children and their ‘staff’ (a cook, several maids and a male servant) were living in one of these apartments (perhaps a ‘suite’ would be a more apt description). One of their children was Augustus, who will get a mention later in this article. Major Lord Henry Gordon (1802-65) was the son of George Gordon KT, son of George, 5th Earl of Aboyne, 9th Marquis of Huntly and had served in India – as a Captain in the East India Company (as did many of the military at the time).
Henry married Louisa Payne (1810-67) in 1827 whilst in Bengal, India.
It was expected that residents of these apartments would re respectable and conform to expected behaviour befitting their position. However, it would seem that Lady Gordon often caused the Palace authorities a few problems. In 1854 Lady Gordon was reprimanded following water seeping into the Queen’s Private Apartments, which were directly underneath. There was water damage to the apartment and some pictures were damaged – perhaps one of her servants left a tap running. Then there was the time that Lady Gordon was having a picnic in Home Park and almost set fire to three Elm trees – which would suggest that a ‘barbecue’ got out of control!
Things got worse when in 1865, Bailiffs turned up at the Gordon’s apartment. It would seem that Henry had got himself into financial trouble and had been declared bankrupt. The bailiffs took most of the furniture in lieu of payment, as for Henry – he scarpered leaving Lady Gordon to deal with the fall-out. A few months later Henry died whilst living in Hanover Square and is buried in Brompton Cemetery. Lady Gordon passed away in May 1867.
Back to Augustus.
The Hon. Augustus Gordon makes an appearance in the Surrey Comet on 10th May 1856 in a report concerning Hampton’s Petty Sessions. Augustus, aged 15 or 16 years old, a resident of Hampton Court, was summoned for wilfully destroying notices cautioning the public against smoking (who knew that back in the mid-19th century there were attempts to ban smoking). J M Strachen Esq., Chairman of the Session, said that it was ill-becoming in young gentlemen, in the defendant’s station of life, to commit such acts; he ought, by his actions, to set a good example. The police on duty caught Augustus in the act of destroying one notice, and he had admitted that it was the second he had destroyed. Augustus was ordered to pay 1 penny, the damages to the notice and 8 shillings costs.
Also mentioned committing a similar offence was George Slade Clay, 18 years old, also a resident of Hampton Court. George was accused a taking down, and carrying away, a notice-board from the Toy Hotel (across the road from Hampton Court Palace). George was severely reprimanded and also had to pay 8s costs Two young well-borne lads who were either out for a lark or might have been early protesters looking for a cause.
The Old Historian
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