Charles Marsack

Charles Marsack (1736 – 22 December 1820) was a British Army officer and landowner who was reputedly the son of Frederick, Prince of Wales.

He was born in 1736, the son of Margaret, Countess of Marsac, the mistress of Prince Frederick. He was alleged to be the son of the Prince, which would have made him the half-brother of King George III.

He went to India around 1760 as an Ensign in the service of the East India Company. After being appointed Lieutenant and Surveyor of the province of Oude [1] he rose by 1777 to be Captain of a cavalry unit of the Nabob of Oude. Resigning his commission in 1779,[2] he in 1780 undertook an arduous journey from Lucknow to Delhi and back to meet the powerful Najaf Khan, a journey that was documented by his native travelling companion.[3]

He returned to England as Major Marsack and in 1784 bought Caversham Park in Oxfordshire from the Earl of Cadogan, restoring and enlarging the house in the Greek style, including the installation of a large Corinthian colonnade at the front. Thomas Jefferson had previously described the estate as having 25 acres of garden, 400 acres of park and 6 acres of kitchen garden. Now in Berkshire and used by the BBC, Caversham Park house has been rated a Grade II listed building.[4]

Marsack served as High Sheriff of Oxfordshire for 1787.

He died in 1820. He was survived by the widow Charlotte Becher [1767-1837), whom he had married at Epsom, Surrey in 1783, and seven children, three sons Richard Henry (1786-1852), George Heartwell (*1791), Edward Claude (*1784) and four daughters Charlotte (*1785), Caroline (1800-1836), Louisa (*1802), Eleanor (*1807). The Caversham estate passed to his eldest son, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Grenadier Guards.

References

  1. ↑ India Courier Extraordinary: Proceedings of Parliament Relating to ..., Volume 2
  2. ↑ Alphabetical list of the officers of the Bengal army; with the dates of their respective promotion, retirement, resignation, or death from 1760 to 1834 inclusive, by Dodwell, Edward; Miles, James Samuel, London 1838, p. 172.
  3. ↑ "A Hanoverian Nabob on the March" (PDF). South Asia Institute. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "Name: CAVERSHAM PARK List entry Number: 1000524". Historic England. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
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