The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 24 November 1832
“Brooks’s, Nov. 24th.
“. . . I got a bothering, long-winded letter from
Wood, stating how very anxious both
Lord Grey and Althorp were to have every official man in the House of
Commons, and, in short, giving me a very intelligible jog or hint that my place
would be more usefully filled by a House of Commons man; and then a place for
life was offered me in return which has just become vacant. And what do you
suppose this place was? It is Receiver-General of the Isle of Man—salary
£500 a year—residence in the said romantic island nine months only out of the twelve. . . . I said the Isle of Man as
a piece of humour was everything I could wish, and I
could only treat it in that way; that if Lord Grey wanted
my place for the purpose of strengthening his Government in the House of
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Commons, it was quite at his disposal, with great
obligations on my part for his manner of having given it me, and without asking
for any terms whatever.”
Richard Caton (1763-1845)
Baltimore cotton merchant, son-in-law of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and founder of
Catonsville. Two of his daughters married British peers. Charles Creevey knew his father, a
Liverpool sea-captain.
Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845)
Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl
(d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).
John Charles Spencer, third earl Spencer (1782-1845)
English politician, son of the second earl (d. 1834); educated at Harrow and Trinity
College, Cambridge, he was Whig MP for Northamptonshire (1806-34) and chancellor of the
exchequer and leader of the lower house under Lord Grey (1830).
Marianne Wellesley [née Caton] (d. 1853)
The daughter of Richard Caton of Maryland; she married, first, Robert Patterson, and
second, in 1825, Richard Wellesley, first Marquess Wellesley. She was the sister-in-law of
Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte and Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen Dowager Adelaide.
Maria Edgeworth: “Her face beautiful, her manner rather too diplomatically
studied.”
Charles Wood, first viscount Halifax (1800-1885)
The son of Sir Francis Lindley Wood, baronet; educated at Eton and Oriel College, Oxford;
he was a Whig MP for Great Grimsby (1826-31), Warcham (1831-32), Halifax (1832-65) and
Ripon (1865-66). He was private secretary to Earl Gray and Secretary of state for India
(1858).
