Sir Frederick Emerton

## Captain    The Right Honourable   Sir Frederick Emerton   KCB PC

**Sir Frederick James Emerton** (b. 1791) known to his family as **Freddie Emerton** and previously known as **Mr Frederick Emerton** from 1791 to 1816 is a British civil servant and gentleman who is the incumbent private secretary to the prime minister and a former member of the foreign office. For his services to the crown, he was appointed to the Privy Council and granted the style *The Right Honourable* for life in 1813 and was appointed as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1816. He is the son of Lord Gerald Emerton and Augusta, Lady Gerald Emerton and a grandson of the late James Emerton, 5th Duke of Suffolk. He currently lives at Portwell House.

## Biography

### Early Life

He was born Frederick James Emerton to Lord Gerald Emerton, the son of the 5th Duke of Suffolk and Augusta, Lady Gerald Emerton the daughter of the 4th Baron Kempton and Baron Marchett. He later enrolled in Eton College joining his cousins Oliver Emerton, Earl of Launceton and Lord Sebastien Emerton. While there, he met several of England's political elites and became well acquainted with the future political establishment.

#### Death of Nerissa Emerton

In 1802, his sister Nerissa Emerton suffered from a severe bout of anaphylaxis brought on by an allergic reaction to ticks while they were playing outside together. Nerissa died shortly after her anaphylaxis started at the age of 9 years old. As a result of this, Frederick suffered from depression and anxiety as well as survivors guilt after he could not save her.

#### University of Cambridge

After Eton, he enrolled at the University of Cambridge in 1808 where he studied law and politics. He was a member of the University's army division where he eventually earned the rank of Sergeant.

### Career

After graduating from Cambridge in 1812, he was enlisted as an officer in His Majesty's Army, however; he did not stay in the army long, after being promoted to Captain in 1813 he left the army and started working for the foreign office as a diplomat. During this time, he worked in British North America handling the peace process between the United Kingdom and and the United States. He was called back to Britain in 1814 on the request of his grandfather, the then Secretary of War and the Colonies.

#### **TIme In British North America**

During his time there as a diplomat Frederick spent a good majority of his time with the natives, learning about their cultures, and lifestyle, alongside making peace with the native tribes that were still struggling to get along with the British. He grew fond of the native people of British North America. He shared many experiences with the natives, and came with them on hunting trips and even helped gather materials for housing. Frederick's opinions on the world changed during his time with the natives, and he even lost some of his British accent.

#### Assassination of the 5th Duke of Suffolk

On May 14th, 1814, James Emerton, 5th Duke of Suffolk and Secretary of War and the Colonies was assassinated by an assassin, later revealed to be hired by William Kingsley, 1st Baron Kingsley who was an American spy. The Duke was assassinated by gunshot while in his carriage with Frederick and Captain Joshua Finch, the Duke's Adjutant. The Duke was not immediately killed, but died just 5 hours after the shot due to internal bleeding.

#### Treaty of Ghent

On December 24th, 1814, Frederick was party to the Treaty of Ghent, the treaty which ended the War of 1812. In the weeks and months leading up to the signing of the treaty, Frederick worked with both fellow British diplomats and American diplomats to ensure fair peace negotiations. When the treaty was signed, Frederick was not a signatory, but he was present at both the signing and acted as an advisor to the British Ambassador who did sign the treaty alongside US President James Madison.

#### Private Secretary to the Prime Minister

On the recommendation of Lord Chamberlain Henry Emerton, 6th Duke of Suffolk, Frederick was appointed the Private Secretary to Prime Minister Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool in 1815.

He worked closely with Lord Liverpool, and became a trusted confidant of the Prime Minister. In January of 1816, Frederick hired an assistant, John Cotton to help with his tasks in the Privy Council Office the Prime Minister's Office. Shortly after hiring his assistant, he was sent to Ireland to investigate a series of seemingly connected security incidents in which English soldiers and officials were targeted for attacks by Irish rebels. He was sent to determine whether The Earl Whitworth, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was shirking his responsibility.

While in Ireland, he witnessed an incident in which a house in Dublin was burnt down by Irish rebels, he later learned that this was the house of Lord Whitworth's mistress and they had determined that someone within Lord Whitworth's office was leaking information to the Irish rebels.

### Romances

For the first 25 years of his life, Frederick did not engage in romantic relationships with anyone. However; his trip to Ireland to meet with Lord Whitworth in 1816, he met Olivia Sutton, the daughter of General Sir Gregory Sutton and Agnes Sutton, Lady Sutton. At the time she was engaged to Sir Reginald Coakes, the tory Member of Parliament for a Newcastle based constituency. During the voyage from London to Dublin, Olivia broke things off with her fiancé after she discovered he was due to father an illegitimate child with another woman. After seeing her physically distraught, Frederick checked on her to ensure her well-being and they began to talk. During the course of his trip to Ireland, he began to become friends with Olivia, and they agreed to meet again after they returned back from Ireland to London. Throughout the first few months of 1816, up until April of 1816, they met frequently, either in London at Emerton House, Whitmore Hall, or Suffolk House. She became very enthralled with him, and he fell in love with her. However; in April of 1816, her ex-fiancé Reginald Coakes blackmailed her into taking him back, blackmail that succeeded.

To try and solve the problem, Frederick went to both Prime Minister Lord Liverpool to see if he could punish Coakes as an MP for his poor behaviour, and went to his cousins’ Sebastien Emerton, Marquess of Sudbury and Edward McLaren, 3rd Viscount McLaren who together hatched a plan to expose Coakes for corruption and blackmail, on April 12th, 1816, an article in *The Edinburgh Tribune* was released which painted Coakes in a bad light, and painted General Sutton in a honourable light, it also announced - prematurely - the engagement of Frederick and Olivia. For his part, Sebastien used his power as a tory party organizer to get Coakes stricken from the roll of approved tory candidates.

After Coakes' reputation was ruined, he agreed, reluctantly, to break off his engagement with Olivia. When Olivia read the paper to find that she was supposed to be engaged with Frederick, she was angry that her hand was being forced yet again, however; she forgave Frederick and confessed her love to him.

#### Coakes Rebellion

After his embarrassing exposé and end to his career, Sir Reginald Coakes planned his revenge against the Emerton Family and the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool.

#### Wedding to Olivia Sutton

His wedding to Miss Olivia Sutton took place on June 2nd, 1816 at Westminster Abbey.

## Personality

Frederick is known for his intellect which he has frequently used during his time in the foreign office and working for the Prime Minister. He is friendly, fair and kind, he is very close with his family, especially his parents as his cousins, Sebastien, Charlotte, and Eloise. He is also very close with his brother Horace Emerton, who is a few years younger than he is. Frederick is also known for being hopeful and in some ways, progressive, despite working for the Tory party. He is confident in his own ability and brave when necessary. He internalizes most of his negative emotions, choosing to keep them to himself rather than talking about them,

## Honours

Frederick was appointed to His Majesty's Privy Council in 1813 for services to the King in the foreign office. This entitled him to use the style of *The Right Honourable* for life. In 1816, he was appointed as a Knight Commander of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath for services to the Crown and to the Privy Council Office and Cabinet.