Robert Clive (1789–1854)

British politician

The Hon.

Robert Clive

DL JP

Member of Parliament for Shropshire South
In office
1832–1854

Serving with The Earl of Darlington, Viscount Newport

Preceded by| New constituency
Succeeded by| Viscount Newport
Robert Windsor-Clive
Member of Parliament for Ludlow
In office
1818–1832

Serving with Viscount Clive

Preceded by| Viscount Clive
Henry Clive
Succeeded by| Viscount Clive
Edward Romilly
Personal details
Born|

Robert Henry Clive

(1789-01-15)15 January 1789
St George's, Hanover Square, London, England
Died| 20 January 1854(1854-01-20) (aged 65)
Shrewsbury, England
Political party| Conservative
Spouse|

Lady Harriet Windsor

(m. 1819)​

Relations| Edward Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis (brother)
Children| 6
Parent(s)| Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis
Lady Henrietta Herbert
Alma mater| St John's College, Cambridge

Robert Henry Clive (15 January 1789 – 20 January 1854)[1] was a British Conservative Party politician.

## Early life

[edit]

Clive was born in the parish of St George's, Hanover Square, London,[2] a younger son of Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis. His mother was Lady Henrietta, daughter of Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis. Edward Herbert (ne Clive), 2nd Earl of Powis, was his elder brother.[3]

His paternal grandfather was Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive ("Clive of India"),[4][5][6] the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency who is credited for laying the foundation of the British East India Company rule in Bengal.[7][8][9][10][11][12]

He was educated at Eton College and was at St John's College, Cambridge from 1807 to 1809, when he graduated M.A. He was awarded an honorary LL.D. in 1835.[13]

## Career

[edit]

Clive sat as one of the two Members of Parliament for Ludlow from 1818 to 1832,[1] alongside his brother, then known as Viscount Clive, and layer for Shropshire South from 1832 to 1854.[14][15]

An agricultural landowner in Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Wales, he was an advocate of the abolition of the Corn Laws during Sir Robert Peel's administration.[16] He was appointed to the commission investigating the Rebecca Riots in south Wales in October 1843.[3] His home was Oakly Park at Bromfield, a house redesigned by his friend, Charles Robert Cockerell.[17]

He was also a Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace for the county of Shropshire and a Justice of the Peace for Worcestershire.[16]

In 1809, Clive was commissioned as a Captain into the South Shropshire Militia.[3] He continued to serve after it became the South Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry, commanding a troop at Bishop's Castle from 1817 to 1828.[18] He was Colonel commanding the Worcestershire Yeomanry from 1833 until his death.[2]

A keen antiquary, Clive was author of Documents Concerned with the History of Ludlow and the Lords Marchers (1841), and president of the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1852.[2]

Clive was deputy-chairman of two early railway companies in Shropshire, the Shrewsbury and Birmingham and the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway. At a directors' meeting of the latter, on 30 December 1853, he was taken seriously ill and never recovered, dying a few weeks later.[16]

## Personal life

[edit]

Clive married Lady Harriet Windsor, daughter of Other Windsor, 5th Earl of Plymouth, in 1819. They had several children, including:[19]

* Henrietta Sarah Windsor-Clive (1820–1899), a watercolourist who married Edward Hussey of Scotney Castle in 1853.[20][21]
* Robert Windsor-Clive (1824–1859), also an MP for Ludlow and South Shropshire; he married Lady Mary Bridgeman, daughter of George Bridgeman, 2nd Earl of Bradford.[19]
* Mary Windsor-Clive (c. 1829–1873), who died unmarried.[19]
* George Windsor-Clive (1835–1918), MP for Ludlow; he married Gertrude Albertine, daughter of Charles Trefusis, 19th Baron Clinton.[19]
* William Windsor Windsor-Clive (1837–1857), who died unmarried.[19]
* Victoria Alexandrina Windsor-Clive (1839–1920), who married the Rev. Edward Farington Clayton, Rector of Ludlow in 1874.[19]

After falling ill at a railway company directors' meeting, Clive died in Shrewsbury in January 1854, aged 65, at the nearby home of the Town Clerk. He was buried at Bromfield Parish Church, near his Oakly Park home near Ludlow.[16]

The following year the barony of Windsor, which had fallen into abeyance on his brother-in-law's death in 1833, was called out of abeyance in favour of his widow, Harriett, who became the thirteenth Baroness Windsor in her own right. She died in November 1869, aged 72, and was succeeded in the barony by her grandson, Robert Windsor-Clive, who was created Earl of Plymouth in 1905.[22]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 4)
2. ^ a b c The Complete Peerage, Volume XII, Part II. St Catherine's Press, London. 1959. p. 801.
3. ^ a b c "CLIVE, Hon. Robert Henry (1789-1854), of Oakly Park, Salop". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
4. ^ G. A. Henty (1 March 2012). With Clive in India: Or, The Beginnings of an Empire. The Floating Press. ISBN 978-1-77545-628-5. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
5. ^ John Basil Watney (1974). Clive of India. Saxon House. ISBN 9780347000086. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
6. ^ "Hundreds sign petition to remove 'Clive of India' statue in UK". India Today. 9 June 2020. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
7. ^ He "was celebrated in so many subsequent histories as the founder of 'British India.'" Emma Rothschild, The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth-Century History (Princeton UP, 2011) p. 45.
8. ^ C. Brad Faught, Clive: Founder of British India (2013)
9. ^ Lord Clive: The Founder of the British Empire in India, a Drama in Five Acts. St. Joseph's Industrial School Press. 1913.
10. ^ Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India. Macmillan. 12 August 2000. ISBN 9780312263829.
11. ^ "Robert Clive".
12. ^ "Robert Clive (1725–74) | Statue by John Tweed, 1912".
13. ^ "Clive, Robert Henry (CLV807RH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
14. ^ Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 448\. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
15. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 3)
16. ^ a b c d "Death of the Hon. R.H. Clive". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 27 January 1854. p. 4.
17. ^ Newman & Pevsner 2006, p. 448.
18. ^ Gladstone, E.W. (1953). The Shropshire Yeomanry 1795-1945, The Story of a Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. Whitethorn Press. pp. 20–25.
19. ^ a b c d e f Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage: Comprising Information Concerning All Persons Bearing Hereditary Or Courtesy Titles, Companions of All the Various Orders, and the Collateral Branches of All Peers and Baronets. London: Dean and Son. 1888. pp. 743–744. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
20. ^ Trust, National. "The Hon. Sarah Henrietta Windsor-Clive (1820-1899) 792032". www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
21. ^ "The Honourable Sarah Henrietta Windsor-Clive (1820–1899)". artuk.org. Art UK. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
22. ^ "EARL OF PLYMOUTH, LANDOWNER, DEAD; Had Charge of 30,000 Acres mDescendant of Clive of India Held Wales Posts". The New York Times. 3 October 1943. Retrieved 31 May 2022.

## Sources

[edit]

* Newman, John; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006). Shropshire. Buildings of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12083-7. OCLC 70671576.

## External links

[edit]

* Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Robert Clive

Parliament of the United Kingdom

Preceded by

Viscount Clive
Henry Clive

|  Member of Parliament for Ludlow
1818–1832
With:  Viscount Clive | Succeeded by

Viscount Clive
Edward Romilly

New constituency |  Member of Parliament for Shropshire South
1832–1854
With:  The Earl of Darlington 1832–1842
Viscount Newport 1842–1854  | Succeeded by

Viscount Newport
Robert Windsor-Clive

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* United States

Other|

* SNAC

*[m.]: married
*[c.]: circa