Author: Goulburn, Edward
Biography:
GOULBURN, Edward (1787-1868: ODNB)
He was born 16 Mar. 1787 in Portland Place, London, the second son of Munbee Goulburn (d 1793) and his wife Susannah Chetwynd (1762-1818). The family possessed Amity Hall plantation, County Vere, Jamaica, with its about 250 slaves. His father dying intestate impacted his early fortunes and that of his brothers, Henry (1784-1856), who became a senior statesman, and Frederick (b 1788). His early education was at Dr. Moore’s school at Sunbury. Upon his father’s death, his brother Henry became his sole tutor. At age 13 he was a midshipman in the Royal Navy; three years later, he was a cadet in the Royal Regiment of House Guards (the Blues), and, from Dec. 1804, lieutenant. In 1805, he satirized many of his fellow officers, including his superiors, in The Blueviad, with disastrous consequence. To avoid court-martial, he quit the army; a Captain John Horsley was court-martialed for dishonoring his regiment by refusing Goulburn’s subsequent challenge. In Feb. 1806, Goulburn was found guilty of libel, spent a few days in prison, and was fined £50. In 1807, he published The Epwell Hunt. One of the men satirized in the poem threatened a libel action, so Goulburn withdrew the volume. His novel, Frederick de Montford, appeared in 1811. In 1810 he entered Middle Temple; he was called to bar in 1815; practiced on the Midland, Brecknock, and Welsh circuits; was Recorder of Leicester, of Lincoln, and of Boston; Serjeant at Law from 1829; Second Justice of Carmarthen, Pembroke, and Caridgan; granted patent of precedence in 1840; appointed a Commissioner of Bankruptcy in 1842, and, two years later, commissioner of the London Court of Review in Bankruptcy. He was Conservative MP for Leicester, 1835-37. In 1845, Oxford conferred upon him an honorary DCL. Goulburn married three times: in 1815 to Harriette De Visme, the mother of his two children Edward Meyrick, later headmaster of Ruby School and Dean of Norwich, and Frederick Anderlecht, later chairman of the Board of Customs. In 1825, he married his cousin Esther Chetwynd, the mother of his daughter Esther. In 1831, he married Katherine Montagu. He died on 24 Aug. 1868 in Portman Square. His estate was valued at probate under £6,000. (ODNB 17 May 2023; PRO T 71/55; GM [1805], 1223-24; Morning Post, 11 July 1805; Sporting Magazine [1806], 286-87; Kentish Weekly Post, 14 Feb. 1806; Monthly Mirror [1806], 175; Case of Nathaniel Jekyll [1810], 115-20; Sun, 7 Nov. 1820; B. Jenkins, Henry Goulburn 1784-1856 [1996]) JC
Other Names:
- Edward Goulburn
- E. Goulburn