"3rd Earl of Portsmouth" John Wallop Hand Signed Free Frank Dated 1835 For Sale

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for sale a VERY RARE! "3rd Earl of Portsmouth" John Wallop Signed Free Frank Dated. 

ES-1965

John Charles Wallop, 3rd Earl of Portsmouth (18 December 1767 – 14 July 1853), styled Viscount Lymington until 1797,

was a British nobleman and lunatic. The Earl was known from an early age to

have an unsound mind, and his estate was placed under the control of four

trustees. While Portsmouth had periods in which he appeared sane, he often

engaged in a variety of bizarre and sadistic behavior. He whipped his servants,

beat and bled his horses, and slaughtered cattle, shouting, with an axe. The

Earl showed a remarkable mania for funerals, which he referred to as

"black jobs". He attended them frequently, insisted on

tolling the bells at Hurstbourne for funerals there, and sometimes flogged the

ringers with the bellrope afterwards. On 19 November 1799, Portsmouth married

Hon. Grace Norton, the sister of one of his trustees, William Norton, 2nd Baron

Grantley. The marriage was encouraged by Portsmouth's younger

brother, Hon. Newton

Fellowes, as Grace was 47 years old at the marriage (Portsmouth

was 31) and unlikely to produce an heir to displace Newton. However, Grace also

played an important role in moderating Portsmouth's behavior and keeping his

eccentricities out of the public eye. When, in 1808, she found herself no

longer able to control the Earl, her relative, Dr. John Combe, was added to the

household, to help suppress Portsmouth's manias. One

of the trustees, Portsmouth's solicitor John Hanson, saw an opportunity at

Grace's death in 1813. Without informing the other trustees or Portsmouth's

brother Newton, he quickly arranged a marriage between Portsmouth and his

daughter, Mary Anne. They were married on 7 March 1814; Lord Byron, another one of Hanson's clients, gave the bride

away. When Newton attempted to have Portsmouth declared insane that autumn,

Byron's affidavit as to the circumstances of the marriage was instrumental in

getting the charge dismissed. However, the new Countess was by no means equal

to the task of controlling Portsmouth; his behavior grew more erratic, while

Mary Anne carried on an adulterous affair with William Alder, who fathered

three children on her. Eventually, the pair of lovers grew so bold as to have

intercourse in the same bed with the Earl (who was almost certainly impotent). A

new commission de lunatico inquirendo took place in 1823, at

the instigation of Portsmouth's nephew Henry Wallop Fellowes,

and it was revealed that the Earl had been badly mistreated by his new wife and

her lover, who had spat on him and beaten him. He was adjudged to have been insane since 1809.

In 1828, his second marriage was annulled, and Mary Anne's children were

declared bastards. A judgment for the £40,000 cost of the trial was issued

against her, and she fled abroad. Portsmouth

died in 1853; his brother Newton succeeded him for less than half a year before

his own death.