Lucius Cary, 10th Viscount Falkland


Lucius Bentinck Cary, 10th Viscount Falkland GCH, PC was a British colonial administrator and Liberal politician.

Background

Falkland was the son of Charles John Cary, 9th Viscount Falkland, and his wife, Christiana. He succeeded as tenth Viscount Falkland in 1809 at the age of five after his father was killed in a duel.

Political and administrative career

A reformer, Lord Falkland was elected to the House of Lords as a Scottish representative peer in 1831. However, already on 15 May 1832, he was created Baron Hunsdon, of Scutterskelfe in the County of York, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. This title gave him a seat in the House of Lords. Five years later he was admitted to the Privy Council.
Falkland became Governor of Nova Scotia in 1840 after the recall of Sir Colin Campbell. He opposed the movement led by Joseph Howe for responsible government leading to Howe threatening to horsewhip him. He restructured the colony's Executive Council by including reformers in the body which had previously been a Tory domain but resisted the demand that the majority party in the legislature be permitted to form a government.
Falkland's term ended in 1846. He then returned to England and held office in the Whig government of Lord John Russell as Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard from 1846 to 1848. The latter year he was appointed Governor of Bombay, in which post he remained until 1853. He returned to England the same year and later served as a magistrate in Yorkshire.

Marriage and family

Lord Falkland married Lady Amelia FitzClarence, the last unmarried illegitimate daughter of King William IV and his mistress, Dorothy Jordan, on 27 December 1830 at the Royal Pavilion. The King gave away the bride and the ceremony was performed by the Bishop of Winchester; they spent their honeymoon at Cumberland Lodge. The couple lived at Rudby Hall, North Yorkshire. They had one son, Lucius William Charles Frederick Cary, Master of Falkland, who married Sarah Christiana Keighly, but died childless. Lord Falkland died in Montpellier in March 1884, aged 80. As his only son had predeceased him, he was succeeded in his titles by his younger brother Admiral Plantagenet Pierrepont Cary.

Legacy