Hugh Fortescue, 2nd Earl Fortescue Knight of the Order of the Garter, Personal Computer, styled Viscount Ebrington from 1789 to 1841, was a British Whig politician.
Background
Fortescue was the eldest son of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue, and Hester Grenville, daughter of Prime Minister George Grenville. The latter year he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father"s junior title of Baron Fortescue, and then served under Lord Melbourne as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1839 to 1841 (when he succeeded his father in the earldom) and under Lord John Russell as Lord Steward from 1846 to 1850.
Education
He was educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford.
Career
He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1839 to 1841. Fortescue first became an Member of Parliament, for Barnstaple, just after his 21st birthday, and sat for various constituencies almost continuously until 1839. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1839 and created a Knight of the Garter in 1856.
After Napoleon"s first abdication and exile to Elba he arranged visits by other prominent Whigs to the Emperor.
A statue of the Earl stands in Exeter Castle Yard, and his marble bust is displayed on the staircase of the Memorial Hall in West Buckland School. 49 of the Fortescue family portraits were saved from the disastrous fire at Castle Hill of 9 March 1934 with minor smoke damage, but were shortly afterwards all destroyed by fire when the delivery lorry returning them from the restorer caught fire whilst parked overnight pending their return to Castle Hill.
In 1858 together with Review J.L. Brereton, Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral and Rector of West Buckland, he founded the Devon County School, situated on land between West Buckland and East Buckland donated by him from his North Devon estate centred at Filleigh.
The school was intended to provide a top quality education to local boys, including therefore the sons of many of his tenant farmers.
lieutenant continues today as West Buckland School, an independent private school. A marble bust of Earl Fortescue, sculpted in 1861 by Edward Bowring Stephens (1815-1882), stands on the staircase of the school"s Memorial Hall.
Politics
Fortescue belonged to that section of the Whig party that welcomed much of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon hoping for radical change in Britain.
Membership
Royal Society; 2nd United Kingdom Parliament. 3rd United Kingdom Parliament. 4th United Kingdom Parliament.
5th United Kingdom Parliament.
6th United Kingdom Parliament. 7th United Kingdom Parliament.
8th United Kingdom Parliament. 9th United Kingdom Parliament.
10th United Kingdom Parliament.
11th United Kingdom Parliament. 12th United Kingdom Parliament. 13th United Kingdom Parliament.