Love Conquers

When Stratford Canning announced he wanted to marry Dublin-born Mehetabel Patrick, his father disinherited him and threw him out of the family home in Londonderry penniless. The father considered the marriage to be “imprudent”. The father was said to be extremely strict and had disinherited Stratford’s elder brother also.

Despite his ill fortune Stratford became a merchant in the City of London, where the couple mixed with Whig politicians, including anti-slavery campaigner Charles Fox, the “founder” of modern conservatism Edmund Burke and playwright of A School for Scandal, and The Rivals, R B Sheridan.

They had a daughter and four sons, three of whom found success as diplomats. One child Charles Fox Canning became Assistant to the Duke of Wellington, but died at the Battle of Waterloo.

Stratford was also the uncle of MP George Canning, who notoriously fought a duel with Lord Castlereagh in 1809 (both survived). George Canning’s other claim to fame is that he had the shortest-ever term as Prime Minister, dying just four months into his term.