The Duke of Wellington was a regular visitor to the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry’s Wynyard Hall and in 1827, the marquess built a 127ft obelisk in the Duke’s honour in the grounds of Wynyard. The inscription once read: Wellington, friend of Londonderry. In 1828 when Londonderry was not given a place in Wellington’s cabinet, the message was altered to, simply …Wellington.
Picture Stockton Archive 
“A Londonderry-Vane Tempest, was Sir Winston Churchills Grandmother”.
Frances, Duchess of Marlborough (born / nee Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane) was an Anglo-Irish noblewoman, the wife of British peer and statesman John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough. One of her sons, Lord Randolph Churchill was the father of our Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. She had a total of 11 children, and her principal home was the monumental Blenheim Palace. Lady Frances (15 April 1822 – 16 April 1899), was the eldest daughter of Irish-born Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry and heiress Lady Frances Anne Vane-Tempest. At her baptism, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington stood as her godfather. She had three brothers, including George Vane-Tempest, 5th Marquess of Londonderry, and two younger sisters. She had an older half-brother Frederick Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry, by her father’s first marriage to Lady Catherine Bligh. She was a domineering yet devoted mother, though her youngest and favourite son, Lord Randolph had earned her displeasure by marrying, against the wishes of both herself and the Duke, the wealthy and beautiful American socialite Jennie Jerome.
Frances and her husband refused to attend Lord Randolph and Jennie’s wedding. Frances featured largely in the lives of the younger members of the family, including her grandson Winston Churchill, to whom she often acted as a substitute mother.
Jennie Jerome was married in 1874, aged 20, at the British Embassy in Paris, to Lord Randolph Churchill. The Churchills had two sons. Winston (1874–1965), the future prime minister, was born less than eight months after the marriage. According to his biographer William Manchester, Winston was most likely conceived before the marriage, rather than born prematurely. (A recent biography has stated that he was born two months prematurely after Lady Randolph ‘had had a fall’). When asked about the circumstances of his birth, he would reply, ‘Although present on the occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it’.
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One story is that whilst staying at Wynyard, Wellington on his travels called into a
local hostelry for refreshments. That hostelry is now the Wellington Inn, Wolviston.
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Wynyard Park – Horse Racing Connection.
Arguably in the top one hundred thoroughbred racehorses of all time and a winner of 16 races, Hambletonian, bred by John Hutchinson of Shipton, Easingwold, was sold to Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, Wynyard Hall in County Durham. In recognition of Hambletonian’s great victory over Diamond in a match race at Newmarket, Sir Henry commissioned George Stubbs (1724-1806) to paint the horse in 1799. Stubbs was, of course, the greatest horse painter of his day. The Newmarket match was fiercely contested and both horses were reported to have been goaded with whip and spur to run faster. Thomas Fields (1751-1810) was Vane-Tempest’s trainer.
Sir Henry was immensely wealthy from his landholdings in the northeast of England and their associated collieries. Sir Henry died August 1813 leaving his daughter Frances Anne, aged 13, as one of the richest girls in the country. Frances Anne eventually married Charles Stewart, who became the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. Her capital established the financial stability of the Londonderrys, who later changed their name to Vane-Tempest-Stewart by petition to Queen Victoria.
The Champion racehorse Hambletonian himself is buried in the grounds of Sir Henry’s former home, Wynyard Park, where he died 28th March 1818.
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On Monday 24th September 1827 the Duke of Wellington visited Stockton-on-Tees and was regaled with speeches and a formal dinner. He then proceeded on his way to Wynyard Hall where he stopped for several days as guest of the Londonderrys. I suspect that the Marquess had the obelisk erected in time for the Duke’s visit. It looks in remarkable condition for its age when you consider that Captain Cook’s monument on Easby Moor was erected about the same time.
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A case of, counting your chickens before they’re hatched? Wellington in private had later said of the Marquess that, ‘he was not particularly partial to the man, nor ever had been’ The obelisk at least survived the burning down of Wynyard Hall in 1841, which was then rebuilt. The Marquess, an arch-tory, who had served his country as both an army officer and foreign diplomat, died in 1857 and is buried at Long Newton.
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A description of Sir Harry Vane – Tempest, of Wynyard Hall, taken from a portion of the Journal Kept by Thomas Raikes, Esq., from 1831-1847.
“Saturday, May 21st, 1837. Lord and Lady Londonderry have left Paris for London. Her father Sir Harry Vane-Tempest, from whom she inherited all the Wynyard property, was one of the handsomest men of his time, but one of the hardest livers. He married the Countess of Antrim, and heiress to the Glenarm property in Ireland, which, when added to his own income, rendered him one of the richest commoners in England. He was a very expensive man, fond of hunting, cock fighting, and the Turf. He once attracted great notoriety in Hyde Park on a Sunday by riding as a hack a celebrated racehorse who in the preceding week had won for him the St. Leger Stakes at Doncaster.
He was a good natured man though not of a refined manner. Sir Harry Vane Tempest’s most fatal passion was the bottle, which he carried to a great extent. I once passed a week with them at Wynyard, and he would seldom be induced to get up from the table till five or six in the morning, and then he would not always retire to rest, but sometimes would put on his morning dress and walk over the estate with his bailiff. This irregular life soon wore out a naturally strong constitution, and he died at Wynyard of a fit in 1813, when he could not have been more than 40. His estates and collieries, which are of immense value, are now the property of Lord Londonderry of Wynyard Hall. .
Vane Tempest Collieries/ Total Workforce 5,375
If you live in or near Durham you will probably know that the statue of a man on the horse in the market place is the Marquess of Londonderry, whose full name was Charles William Vane Tempest Stewart. He also owned many of the coal mines in County Durham. He commissioned the building of Seaham Harbour so that the coal could be taken away and sold more cheaply and easily. He died in 1854. Coal Mines owned by the Londonderry family (3) Dawdon, Seaham and Vane Tempest Collieries, Total Employees 5375.
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The Londonderry Family History Continued:
A letter survives in the Londonderry Papers at the Durham Record Office which informs us that on January 27 1845 a party of guests travelled from Lord Londonderry’s mansion at Wynyard to Seaham Harbour to observe the opening ceremony for a new extension to the docks. On the way they passed miners digging a new shaft, where at the request of the ladies present two of the ‘mine sinkers’ ascended to the surface from the bottom of the pit shaft in a large bucket. They resembled drowned rats more than men but they maintained their dignity and flatly refused to ‘run about and show themselves’ to the well dressed gawping spectators.
Charles Stewart, 3rd.Marquess of Londonderry and 1st.Viscount Seaham, died at his home, Holdernesse House in London’s Park Lane, in March 1854. A new place of worship, Christ Church, was built at New Seaham in 1855 by Lady Frances Anne as a memorial to her husband. It is virtually the only monument to the old tyrant that still stands in the town he created.
Like her late husband the Marchioness was infamous for her parsimony. At that time It was the individual mine worker’s responsibility to subscribe to a ‘club’ to cover ‘private’ medical expenses. For those permanently crippled or worse there was nothing and before long they and/or their widows and children were given their marching orders from their colliery houses. At one inquest it was revealed that naked lights (candles) had been used in the pit, nearly four decades after the invention of the safety lamp. Suffice to say the history of coal mining and the Durham Coal fields is marred by tragedy, which is humbling to read about today.
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