Spencer Perceval, the assassinated British Prime Minister who lived round the corner ...

Isn't it weird how some people get defined by a single event in their lives? 

Take Spencer Perceval, for example. Now you may well ask who was he?. Or, if you do know who he was, you'll probably say oh yes, wasn't he the only British Prime Minister ever to have been assassinated in office? And that's it. That's all anyone ever seems to remember about him. These days he's little more than the answer to an obscure question in a pub quiz. 

All Saints Church, Ealing

Since moving to Ealing I've been vaguely aware of his existence. I knew he'd served as British Prime Minister (from October 1809) until his assassination in the lobby of the House of Commons (on 11th May 1812). OK, so I wouldn't have been able to give you the various dates involved - hence the parenthesis.  What I hadn't realised was that his house had been just round the corner from my own. Heck he must have driven his carriage past my front door on a regular basis. Maybe he even knew the people who lived in our rickety old house all those years ago, and popped round for an impromptu cup of Rosy Lee, or a fortifying glass of Madeira, from time to time. Ah, if only these old walls could talk ... .

This was what his place looked like way back then:

Spencer Perceval's house Elm Grove, Ealing

And this is how that same plot of land looks today:

All Saints Church, Ealing

Spencer Perceval had by all accounts been a decent sort. He'd been one of the younger sons of an Irish peer, the Earl of Egmont, and had had to make his own way in the world without receiving much in the way of hand-outs from his family. His first career had been in the law, where he'd made his mark as a King's Counsel down in Lincoln's Inn.

All Saints Church, Ealing

One of his more salacious cases had been the defence of Caroline of Brunswick, the Princess of Wales, when she was charged with having had an adulterous affair which, it was alleged, had produced an illegitimate baby.

Princess Caroline of Brunswick

The Prince of Wales, by this time, was not at all keen on remaining married to the Princess of Wales.  In point of fact he'd only ever agreed to get married to her in the first instance so that Parliament would vote him a larger married prince's allowance. And in truth there had always been three of them in the marriage ... . Is any of this starting to sound familiar to anyone out there? History has this eery way of repeating itself. You see naughty old George had had a long-standing mistress, Maria Fitzherbert, with whom he'd contracted a secret marriage which was void under the Royal Marriages Act for not having been approved by the monarch of the day (his very disapproving dad, George III, with whom he also had an unhappy relationship).

Maria Fitzherbert

 It wouldn't misrepresent the position to say that Geroge couldn't stand the sight of Caroline. And so it was with some gusto that he seized upon the rumour that his wife was enjoying the attentions of other men, and that she had conceived and given birth to a lover's child. A government inquiry was ordered, which concluded that the central allegations were false and that the baby was not Caroline's biological child, but simply a little boy whom she had adopted.  Whilst she was exonerated of the charges laid against her, Caroline's conduct was found to have been wanting in certain respects and she was denied access to her only biological child, Princess Charlotte. Perceval was retained as counsel for the Princess, and produced a 156 page letter to King George III in her defence requesting that she be allowed to return to Court and given full access to her daughter.

The Inquiry into Princess Caroline

The Parliamentary inquiry into the princess's conduct became know as the delicate investigation. Don't you just love the subtlety of Georgian euphemism? It was held in private and was all supposed to have been very hush hush, but both sides kept leaking the findings that were unhelpful to the other side. Before long the whole business was common knowledge and became rich fodder for the satirists and scandal sheets of the day.

Having been through the battle together Princess Caroline became a firm friend, and agreed to be god-mother for the Percevals' youngest child.

Spencer Perceval

Against this backdrop Perceval and his family moved to Elm Grove in Ealing in 1808. It was a sixteenth century house, which had once been home to the Bishop of Durham. I can imagine him driving around the Common and into town along the Uxbridge Road to attend to the great affairs of state, leaving his family to enjoy the wholesome country air out here in the sticks. 

Ealing Common

As Prime Minister he had to steer the country though a number of tricky situations such as the madness of King George III, and the appointment of his son (later George IV) as Regent.  There'd been a depression and riots with Luddites, not to mention his successful campaigns during the War of the Iberian Peninsula against Napoleon - although outright victory in that war didn't come until 1814.

All Saints Church, Ealing

And all the while, he, his wife, Jane, and their 12 children had lived just round the corner. Jane had gone through a staggering 20 pregnancies. They were by all accounts a close-knit family. Perceval was not a man given to the excess and debauchery that was otherwise the hallmark of the Regency. He drank moderately, disapproved of gambling and was of a religious, evangelical disposition.

And then, on that fateful day, he was shot through the heart by a disillusioned merchant called John Bellingham who'd been incarcerated in a Russian jail on what were widely believed to have been trumped-up charges. Bellingham felt strongly that the government had not done enough to come to his aid, and he was determined to have his revenge.

Spencer Perceval

When Perceval died he had only  £106 5s 1d to his name. For his widow and 12 children the future looked far from bright, but, within a few days of his assassination, Parliament came to the rescue and voted to settle the sum of £50,000 on his children with further annuities to his wife and eldest son, who had by this time reached his majority.

All Saints Church, Ealing

So the widow and her 12 children didn't end up in the Poor House. They lived in some modest comfort here in Ealing. When they had grown up four of his unmarried daughters, Frances, Maria, Louisa and Frederica, lived together at Elm Grove with their mother. On her death they moved to Pitshanger Manor. 

Pitshanger Manor, Ealing

Another daughter Isabella, who married her cousin Spencer Horatio Walpole, lived next door in the Hall on Ealing Green.

Perceval's youngest daughter, Frederica, outlived all her siblings, dying in 1900 at the ripe old age of 95. In her will she left a bequest of £5,000 to be applied in building a church on the site of Elm Grove, her old childhood home, just around the corner from yours truly. The church was to be built  in honour of her father, and today it is formally known as All Saints Church, in a nod to the date of Perceval's birth: 1st November (All Saints' Day) 1762. 

All the best,

Bonny x

As shared on the Alphabet Project

Also check out the Drinking Fountain on South Ealing Road, erected in memory of Spencer Perceval's granddaughter, Jane Margaret Walpole. 

Or romp around the best of Regency architecture here in the Big Smoke Walking in the footsteps of John Nash part I

Or Walking some more in the footsteps of John Nash II