The Remarkable Lushington Family. David Taylor

be transported privately on the River Thames and that any attempt to take it through any part of the country, especially the towns, should be avoided at all cost. However, it was realized that this might cause the city magistrates, who supported the late queen and who had control over that stretch of the river, might apprehend the coffin so it could be laid in state in the Guildhall—an event which the government wanted to avoid at all costs.

      Eventually, a route was set through Hammersmith, Kensington and then to north of the City of London to Romford, Chelmsford and on to the port of Harwich (figure 6). Despite these arrangements, the procession was halted and diverted on several occasions as the crowds tried to divert it. There was fighting and rioting, and the military were enlisted to control the crowds. Joanna Baillie wrote to Lady Dacre, “We yesterday had sad accounts of riots in town to make the funeral procession go by Temple Bar, in which several lives were lost, from the Guards being obliged to fire on the crowd.”¹⁸ This particular incident took place at Cumberland Gate where two people were killed when an attempt was made to divert the procession along Oxford Street.

      Upon arrival at Colchester, the coffin was placed in St Peter’s Church overnight. Here Lushington instructed a workman to screw on the coffin a silver plate with the inscription which the late Queen had requested: “Here lies Caroline of Brunswick, the injured Queen of England.”¹⁹ A local official ordered the removal of the inscription and a row broke out. Eventually, the plate was removed and Lushington and his co-executor, issued a public statement in protest.²⁰

      Eventually, the funeral party reached Harwich for the sea crossing and then on to Brunswick where the late Queen’s body was finally laid to rest in the cathedral vault. The whole exercise was extremely harrowing for the young bride, and immediately the newlyweds returned home,²¹ Stephen wrote to his father-in-law to assure him how well Sarah had coped on this difficult trip:

      Sarah could not speak her own praises. She could not tell you that she has given pleasure & delight to all she has associated with in her wanderings; nor that she has been to me a never failing source of pride—comfort & happiness. . . . I have too the satisfaction of saying that she bore the bodily fatigues of our long journey with less inconvenience that my fears anticipated; I cannot say she did not at times suffer from exertion but I believe I may assert with truth that our residence at Frognal has wholly & completely restored her & that she is now perfectly well & stronger that she was before her marriage.²²

      Lushington then turned to the matter of the Queen’s will:

      The Queen’s affairs will prove very troublesome from the doubtful nature of the demands upon the estate yet I fear not, for my coadjudicator is very keen in these matters & will keep me out of all scrapes. I would I had had nothing to do with them, but this is all in vain.²³

      It was not until the following January that Lushington was finally able to report to Lord Liverpool with a full account of the late Queen’s estate. He explained to the Prime Minister, “I was anxious to have taken this step at an earlier period, but much time was unavoidably occupied in obtaining a thorough knowledge of the concerns & collecting all the demands against the estate.”²⁴ For all his work on the Queen’s behalf, Lushington was awarded the freedom of the City of London.

      On Christmas Day 1821, Maria Edgeworth wrote to her aunt that she had just seen Sarah who “looks however as if she has gone through a great deal.”²⁵ Shortly after this she wrote to Harriet Beaufort:

      Mrs Lushington is now as agreeable as ever as we first thought Sarah Carr and has shewn since we have been here a degree of strength of mind and self command about duel in which her husband had nearly been doomed . . . Dr Lushington has been much misrepresented in the newspapers. He is an amiable private character and has many friends strongly attached to him. As to his politics I have nothing to do with them. I only hope and believe he will make his wife happy. On her journey home from Brunswick by the Rhine she took 90 sketches—beautiful.²⁶

      Lushington and his new wife eventually settled down to married life. At first they lived with the Carrs in Hampstead while they looked for a suitable house in London. However, Lushington, weighed down by the late Queen’s affairs, struggled to find time to search for a property and wrote to his father-in-law, “My time I am sorry to say is wholly occupied . . . We have still not yet obtained a house & I begin to think we shall not be able to procure a permanent residence this year.”²⁷ At the start of the following year Stephen secured the lease of 2 Great George Street, Westminster which was conveniently placed for the Palace of Westminster.²⁸

      An early visitor to the new home, Maria Edgeworth, dutifully informed her mother that she had been to see “Mrs Lushington in her new house in which she has been but one day and is in all the horrors of settling.” Edgeworth was soon followed by Joanna Baillie who wrote:

      Mrs Lushington has got into her new house in George St: Westminster where we saw her the other day full of courtesy & kindness, and everything in nice order about her. The Doctor & her occupied Mr Carr’s house here just after their return from Brunswick and were very pleasant Neighbours to us. He is full of ardour & spirit and sociability, and his conversation is very delightful.²⁹

      In addition to establishing a London residence, the Lushingtons took a lease on “Merry Hill House,” a well-situated country house in Bushey, Hertfordshire. They moved there in about 1829 after seeing it advertised in the Morning Post. ³⁰ Here the couple spent their married life and raised their family. Joanna Baillie wrote:

      we went with Mrs Baillie & spent the day at Merry Hill with the Lushingtons, for his two Brothers, Sir Henry & Mr Charles Lushington, with Miss L. the sister & Mrs. Chs. L: the Lady who has given an account of her over-land journey from India to the public; a very dear good account I am told, and I hope to read it soon. It was quite delightful to see the 3 Brothers so happy with one another, our friend Sarah was in good looks & spirits and all her children healthy & playing about. Merry Hill stands very pleasantly in a rich pretty country—but I need say nothing about that, as I believe you have seen it.³¹

      Lady Byron became a regular visitor at “Merry Hill” as did Maria Edgeworth who reported to her mother that she had “lately dined with Mrs Lushington to meet Lady Byron-alone-result-I don’t like her-cold-and dull and flat-dog looking face.”³²

      “A Real Good Mother and Wife”

      In the year that the Lushingtons moved to Great George Street, their first child, Edward Harbord Lushington was born and Maria Edgeworth wrote to Sarah:

      The great pleasure of hearing of your safety, my dear Mrs Lushington, and of the birth of your boy, was much increased in the manner in which the good news was communicated to me in the most affectionate warm-hearted letter I ever read from your dear mother.³³

      Edward, named after his father’s friend Edward Harbord, third Lord Suffield, was followed by William Bryan, Hester, Frances, Alice, and Stephen. In 1832, Sarah gave birth to Vernon and Godfrey. The twins were followed by Laura and, finally, Edith Grace. The forthright Joanna Baillie commented to her friend Mary Montgomery, “His [Stephen’s] Children, take them all together, are not so handsome as might have been expected from such Parents, but Fanny whom you saw with Miss Lawrence, is I think the homeliest of the family.”³⁴ Maria Edgeworth made a similar observation when she wrote, “Mrs Lushington is charming such a really good mother and wife. I wish her children were handsomer.”³⁵

      Lady Byron took a personal interest in the Lushington children. She created a trust fund, with Frances Carr as a trustee, that was strictly limited to providing “some educational advantages to your daughters.”³⁶ She wrote to Sarah, “I am glad you don’t object of a Guardian for your Brats—she consents—and the less said about the matter the better.” She insisted that Sarah kept the matter a secret for the time being.³⁷

      Surviving correspondence of both Edgeworth and Baillie provides glimpses into the domestic lives of both the Carr and Lushington families. In January 1825 Baillie wrote, “Mrs Carr is going to carry us tomorrow to Newington, to see our kind friend Mrs Barbauld, who has