John Anthony Fonblanque

John Anthony Fonblanque KC (1759 – 4 January 1837) was an English politician and barrister.

In 1828, late in life, he changed his surname by royal licence to de Grenier Fonblanque. He was descended from a Huguenot family, his father having exchanged the surname de Grenier de Fonblanque for that of Fonblanque on his naturalisation in England.

Career

Called to the bar at the Middle Temple, 24 January 1783, Fonblanque distinguished himself in 1791 as leading counsel at the bar of the House of Commons on behalf of the merchants of London in opposition to the Quebec bill.

Fonblanque was the author of the very extensive notes forming the useful body of the standard legal work, Treatise on Equity nominally ascribed to Henry Ballow. First published in 1792, the fifth edition appeared in 1820.

He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Camelford 1802-1806[1] as a member of the Whig party following members of his wife's family, Samuel Martin and Sir Ralph Payne. Financial troubles brought an end to his political career by 1810.

He was one of the Whig "friends" of King George IV when Prince of Wales and is also said to have been a personal friend of his Royal Highness. He is supposed to have written the celebrated letters to the King on the subject of his Royal Highness's exclusion from the army which were generally attributed to Lord Moira.

Made King's Counsel on 28 April 1804, his brilliant early reputation meant he was spoken of as a future Whig Lord Chancellor. Vanity led Fonblanque into debt in 1807-08, and money problems, his wife left him in 1834, remained with him and his family the rest of his life. In later years he withdrew a great deal from the profession. It was said that Lord Eldon hearing that his library was to be sold purchased it and presented it to him.

Family

John Anthony de Grenier Fonblanque inherited the French title of Marquis near the end of his life although he never assumed it in England. He died on 4 January 1837 in his 77th year, still confined to the area just outside the debtors' prison, retaining his faculties to the last and "with perfect resignation".

His parents were Jean de Grenier, a banker, naturalized as Jean de Grenier Fonblanque,[1] younger son of Abel de Grenier comte de Fonblanque, of Tarn et Garonne, Languedoc, and of a family of Gentilshommes Verriers, a monopoly granted by St. Louis on his return from the Crusades, and Eleanor, daughter of Thomas Bagshaw.[1]

He married 30 May 1786 Frances Caroline Fitzgerald (1760–1844),[1] sister of the poet William Thomas Fitzgerald and daughter of Colonel John Austen Fitzgerald and Henrietta Martin sister of Samuel Martin, and with her he was father of:

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 R. G. Thorne, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1790-1820, Boydell & Brewer, 1986 The History of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Joseph Denison
John Angerstein		 Member of Parliament for Camelford
1802–1812
With: Robert Adair		 Succeeded by
Robert Adair
The Viscount Maitland
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