George William Frederick Howard, the future 7th Earl of Carlisle, fashioned himself socially as Morpeth after his family’s borough in Northumberland, England. On December 3rd, 1841, arriving in Hanover with four horses, Lord Morpeth signed the guest ledger of the Dartmouth Hotel while traveling North America on a year-long visit.
Dartmouth Hotel Gust Ledger, December 1841
Morpeth, a member of the prominent Howard family, served two terms in parliament before succeeding his father as the 7th Earl of Carlisle. Today, he is chiefly remembered as a parliamentary reformer and a two-time administrator of Ireland whose promotion of religious tolerance, Catholic emancipation, and educational reform earned him immense popularity in Ireland. In 1841, after the surprise loss of his first seat in parliament (the event which precipitated his trip to America), he was honored by a 1,300 foot scroll containing the signatures of more than 160,000 grateful Irish constituents (known today as the Morpeth Roll). After succeeding his father in the house of Lords in 1848, he returned to Ireland to serve as governor for a second popular administration. Morpeth and his family are also remembered for their support of abolitionist causes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. During an 1830s visit to England, abolitionist Charles Sumner described Morpeth’s sister, the Duchess of Sutherland as “more than anyone in English nobility against American slavery”. Several poetic odes to abolition are attributed to Lord Morpeth’s pen and his American itinerary included meetings with leading figured in the American abolition movement.
The account of his 1841-1842 tour of North America, aptly titled “Travels in America” was published nine years after his visit. Though the written record does not include his visit to Hanover, Dartmouth’s Rauner Library contains several pieces of correspondence related to his American travels in its collections. Among these finds are a letter of introduction to Daniel Webster from 2nd Baron of Wharncliffe, which Morpeth carried with him when he arrived in Boston aboard the R.M.S. Columbia in October 1841.
Daniel Webster served as a key contact to the English Lord throughout his visit, making sure that he met the right people and stayed in the right places throughout his North American sojourn. In another letter found in the Rauner Library, Webster writes to Charles Sumner to share news of arrangements made for Morpeth at the Washington Hotel in Philadelphia. In another instance, a constituent asks Webster to forward a letter to Morpeth.
One of the connections Webster facilitated was with Dartmouth graduate George Ticknor ‘07 of Boston. Morpeth and Ticknor’s correspondence (also available to view in the Rauner Library) indicates a warm friendship was forged during the days after the Lord disembarked in Boston. Though no records that we could find indicate why Morpeth was in Hanover on the 3rd of December, It seems fairly likely that Webster and Ticknor’s influence on the visitor could contribute to why we find the Englishman’s name among the rows of New Englanders on the hotel’s ledger that winter.
(left) Letter of Introduction to Daniel Webster, Sept. 30, 1841; (right) Letter from Daniel Webster to Charles Sumner, suggesting hotel arrangements for Lord Morpeth in Philadelphia
We do know that he had an interest in trees & forests. During his second term in parliament he served as First Commissioner of Woods & Forests. In “Travels in America” Morpeth writes that he “wished to look upon the autumn tints of the American Forest, before the leaves, already beginning to fall, had entirely disappeared”. Although he would have missed the foliage by the time he made it to the Upper Valley that December, his interest in education is another variable that might have contributed to his arrival in Hanover on this day 183 years ago.
His educational proclivities appear to have put him in proximity with a major moment in New England history during his trip: according to the account of someone who was also there, Morpeth was present at Harvard Law School in 1842 with Lord Ashburton and Daniel Webster as they negotiated the details that settled the northern border of the State of Maine, formalized by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty later that year.
By Christmas of 1842, Lord Morpeth was back home at Castle Howard, his family seat in North Yorkshire, England. Among the letters in the Rauner Library’s George Ticknor collection we found a final letter related to his one-year tour of America. This affectionate little note expresses fond thanks to Anna Eliot Ticknor for the Christmas gift he received from her:
My Dear Mrs. Ticknor,
I put a hurried line to you into my letter to Sumner to express to you how much, how ever much more than I ever I shall value the present you made to me on last Christmas day…My kindest regards to your husband. I think very often of your bright Common and its pleasant sunset walk.
Very sincerely yours,
Morpeth
(left) Portrait of Lord Morpeth; (right) Thank you note from Morpeth to Anna Eliot Ticknor, December 1842
The ‘bright Common’ that Morpeth references at the end of his letter is the Boston Common, where George and Anna Ticknor lived. Their house still stands at the corner Park and Beacon streets. On page nine of “Travels in America”, Morpeth describes the sunsets that he experienced on walks with the Ticknors:
I look back with fond recollection to [Boston]’s well-built streets – the swelling dome of its State-House the please – the pleasant walks on what is termed the common – a park, in fact of moderate size in the center of the city where I made my first acquaintance with the bright winter sunsets in America…”
Like Morpeth to Anna Ticknor, we’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and thank you all for tuning into another moment from Hanover’s history.