The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-02 00:00:00

MEMOIRS OF SIR ROBERT PEEL.

Two volumes under this title have recently been published
by Newby, Mortimer-street, and Boone, of New Bond-street,
of which too much must not be anticipated by the admirers,
personal and political, of Sir Robert Peel, or they will find
themselves sadly disappointed. In the Short notice of Sir
Robert Peel the elder, with which these volumes open,
something more of the " memoir " may be found, and from
it we extract the following particulars regarding that remark-
able man :

" The father of the present baronet, the late Sir R. Peel,
was born at Peel's Cross, a short distance from Lancaster,
on the 25th of April, in the year 1750; of his ancestry nothing
more is known beyond the simple fact of his being the son of
Robert Peel, a manufacturer, of humble pretensions and
small fortune, who died in 1736 ; leaving but a trilling pro-
vision for his widow, and little more to his son than his good
name and an unsullied reputation.
" The early years of the late baronet's life were passed on
his father's property, and under the paternal roof. From
his boyhood's days he was impressed with an idea that he
should accumulate great riches, and become the founder of a
family ! so strongly was this opinion impressed on his mind
that it was the frequent theme of his discourse with his
brothers, two of whom were his seniors, and to whom his
dreams of ambition and anticipations of future greatness proved
sources of great amusement. He was, however, nothing
daunted by their jeers, and in support of his anticipations of
wealth and greatness, invariably urged his decided opinion
that in this free country any situation was attainable by a
good capacity aided by prudence and perseverance.
" Mr. Peel was brought up to the cotton trade, in which
branch of manufacture his father was engaged. In the pursuit
of his occupation he soon became aware of the importance of
machinery in facilitating his operations ; and, with an un-
common quickness of perception, which it is generally
acknowledged he possessed, he speedily discovered that the
apparatus then in use was susceptible of great improvement.
He eagerly devoted himself to an investigation of the powers
of mechanical combinations, more especially where they could
be converted to the use and improvement of that particular
branch of manufacture in which he was engaged. The success
which attended and ultimately rewarded his labours, proved
how accurate his judgment was, and probably tended to give,
even at that early period of his life, that spirit to his enter-
prises, andinspired him with that perseverance in habits of
industry, which adhere to him in every stage of his future
life, and under the influence of which he seemed never to
have felt fatigue."
" Mr. Peel, having by his successful commercial and
manfacturing pursuits realized a large landed property, and
risen to high consideration in his native country, at the general
election of 1790 offered himself as a candidate for represent-
ing the borough of Tamworth, for which place he was returned
trumphantly. He took his seat in due course, and continued
to represent the borough for thirty years, having been
successfully re-elected at the general elections of 1796, 1802,
1806, 1807, 1812, and 1818, and in 1820 he resigned his seat,
and was succeeded in the representation of the borough by '
his second son, William Peel, who, under the brief Adminis-
tration of his brother, Sir Robert, held the appointment of
Under Secretary of State for the Home Department."
" Sir Robert, as has been already stated, was twice mar-
ried. His first lady was Miss Yates, the daughter of Wm.
Yates, Esq., of Bury, his partner in the extensive manufac-
turing concerns in which, at an early period of life, he was
engaged. By this lady he had a numerous progeny, con-
sisting of six sons and five daughters :--first, Mary, married
to the Right Hon. George Robert Dawson ; second, Eliza-
beth, united to the Rev. William Cockburn, Dean of York,
brother of Sir James Cockburn, Bart., and Admiral Sir
George Cockburn ; third, the Right Hon. Robert Peel, who
has succeeded to the title; and fourth, Wm. Yates Peel,
Esq., married to Lady Jane Moore, daughter to the Earl of
Mountcashel ; fifth, Edmund Peel, Esq., married to Emily,
daughter of John Swinfen, Esq., of Swinfen Hall, Stafford-
shire; sixth and seventh, Eleanora and Anne, who died in
infancy; eighth, the Rev. John Peel, Prebendary of Canter-
, bury, and Vicar of Stone, in Worcestershire, married to
Augusta, another daughter of Mr. Swinfen ; ninth, Lieute-
nant-Colonel Jonathan Peel, married to Lady Alicia Jane
Kennedy, daughter of the Marquis of Ailsa, K.T. ; tenth,
Lawrence, married to Lady Jane Lennox, daughter of the
Duke of Richmond ; and eleventh, Harriet, married to the
Right Hon. Lord Henley, a Master in Chancery, who died
in the early part of the year 1841. By this enumeration it
will be perceived that, previous to his decease, the venerable
Baronet had the gratification of seeing his children marriad
into some of the most noble families in the kingdom ; and so
numerous were his descendants that, on the anniversary of
his seventy-eighth birth-day, he saw himself surrounded by
no less than fifty children and grand-children, to each of
whom in commemoration of that meeting and its cause, he
presented a splendid silver medal.
" In October, 1805, Sir Robert, having some time previ-
ously lost his first wife, married a second time to Susannah,
sister of the Rev. Sir W. Clarke, Baronet, Rector of Bury,
in Lancashire; by this lady he had no children. She died in
September, 1824, at the age of seventy-two.
" The will of the deceased Baronet was proved by his
executors on the Bth of June, 1830 ; the proposals were sworn
at what is technically called ' upper value,' namely, upwards
£900,000, an instance which had never previously to that
time occurred. The probate stamp was £15,000, and the
legacy duty paid exceeded £lO,OOO. The will, after entailing
on the title Drayton Park and some other large estates in
Warwickshire and Staffordshire, proceeds to enumerate cer-
tain dispositions of property, amounting. to upwards of
£240,000, previously advanced by way of gifts, or settled on
annum secured
his children ; this was exclusive of £9,000 per
to his eldest son. It then proceeds to apportion £600,000
more amongst his eight surviving younger children ; making
the sum left to each of his five sons, excluding the present
Baront, £106,000 ; and to each of his three daughters
£53,000. The legacies to old servants and memorials to
friends are numerous and liberal, and his bequests to public
institutions such as show a mind open to charity and alive to
the necessities of his fellow-creatures. The will bears date
the 27th July, 1820. There is a codicil added to it under
date the 11th of February, 1825, by which the portions of his
younger sons are increased to £135,000 each, and of the
residue, calculated at £500,000, four-ninths were given to
his eldest son, the present Right Honourable Baronet, and
one-ninth to each of the younger ones."