Author: Talbot, John
Biography:
TALBOT, John (1791-1852: ODNB)
He was born at Grafton Manor, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, on 18 Mar. 1791, the eldest surviving child of John Joseph Talbot (1765-1815) and Catherine Clifton (1768-91) of Lytham Hall, near Lancaster, who had married in a Church of England ceremony on 28 May 1789 at St. George’s, Hanover Square, Westminster, London. His mother died two months after his birth. His father remarried and he was sent to his great aunt, the dowager countess of Shrewsbury, at Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire. He received a Catholic education firstly at Vernon Hall (the forerunner of Ampleforth), then at Stonyhurst (1802-7), and finally at St. Edmund’s College (1807-10), near Ware, where he wrote his only known poem, listed here. In 1812 he toured the Mediterranean with Rev. John Chetwode Eustace (1762-1815), antiquary and Catholic priest, and other travelling companions. He married Maria Theresa Talbot, daughter of William Talbot of Castle Talbot, Wexford, Ireland, to whom he was distantly related, on 26 June 1814 at the Roman Catholic Chapel, Bath. They had one son who died in infancy and two daughters. In June 1827, he succeeded to the title and estates of his uncle, Charles Talbot, and became the sixteenth earl of Shrewsbury. He decided not to pursue the political career which the Catholic Emancipation Act (1829) had opened up. Instead he went to live at Alton Abbey, Staffordshire, turning it into a fine Gothic residence with the assistance of the architect A. W. N. Pugin (1812-52), who had recently converted to Catholicism. Between 1839 and 1851 they added a neo-medieval church, school, almshouse, and hospital. The mansion later became known as Alton Towers. Talbot also supported Pugin’s church-building in other locations and was thought of as the leading patron of the Catholic revival. He was, however, sceptical of some of the ambitions of the Oxford Movement and opposed Daniel O’Connell’s agitation in Ireland. By 1850 he was spending most of his time in Italy. He died at Naples on 9 Nov. 1852, probably from malaria. His body was returned to England and he was buried at Alton. (ODNB 7 Oct. 2023; Edward Price, “Memoir,” The Catholic Directory and Ecclesiastical Register [1854], 141-61; SJC 2 July 1814; Morning Post 20 Nov. 1852; Michael Fisher, Pugin-Land [2002], 23-6, 35-42) AA