[These two pages are growing slowly: see Page History below.]
After the extracts from the journal of Thomas Raikes (published in 1856), the following passages are arranged by the order of their publication date.
All the texts have been copied from secondary sources and each needs to be checked with the original manuscript or newspaper. There will probably be some typos alongside mistranscriptions.
William acquired a particularly bad reputation in the 20th century, mostly because of the judgments handed out in some British books about Beckford. John Oliver, Guy Chapman, Boyd Alexander, James Lees-Milne and Brian Fothergill seem to have known surprisingly little about William, yet each of them felt able to pronounce an absolute condemnation of his character. Although Beckford has gained an undeserved reputation as some kind of ‘martyr’, it was William and not Beckford who, in the England of 1811, faced a real threat of execution for his ‘crimes’ and took refuge overseas in exile from his beloved home at Powderham for the last twenty-four years of his life.
For obituaries and death notices in newspapers and magazines, visit William’s obituaries with notices of other deaths.
1835 Thomas Raikes in his journal, Paris 28 May and 2 June [published 1856]:
- On Monday, died, in the Place Vendome, the Earl of Devon, formerly Lord Courtenay, who for many years has resided abroad for reasons well known to the world. He has left no children,and his splendid fortune, with his title, go to a distant relation. The report is that he was killed by the ignorance of his French physician.
- Earl Devon has made a singular will. He has left to his upper servant his house in the country, in the forest of Tenars, his plate, and in short all his property in France; and to his coachman, his carriages, horses, harness, and everything appertaining to his stables.
1835 Weekly Dispatch [British newspaper published in London], 31 May 1835, p.3:
- The Earl of Devon, better known as Lord Courtenay, died at Paris on the 25th instant, in the 67th year of his age. The reason why this ornament of the Peerage absented himself from England need not be mentioned.
1835 Southern Reporter, 20 June 1835, p.4:
- Paris Correspondent. Lord Devon’s Chateau de Draveil, with its magnificient collection of Exotics, which are to be sold for the benefit of the legatees, is now thrown open for daily visitors; and several parties of pleasure and picnics have taken place in its hitherto secluded lawns. So fastidious was Lord D. in his household arrangements, as to institute fines among his gardeners and workmen, for every piece of paper, rag, bone, or unsightly object left in the park or premises.
1835 Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, 26 September 1835:
- The produce of the sale of the late Earl of Devon’s plate, bijouterie, furniture, stud, &c., on the Place Vendome, at Paris, is expected to realise the enormous sum of 120,000l. | The Earl of Devon, Viscount Courtenay, of Powderham Castle, is putting that dilapidated mansion in thorough repair. The late Earl, who recently died in Paris, where he resided many years, had neglected the family mansion, which is built in one of the most picturesque situations in England, overlooking the river Exe, and the finest part of Devonshire. The present Earl has determined to restore the Castle to its original state, and, in future, to reside there.
1835 Belfast News-Letter, 20 October 1835:
- The sale of the personal property of the late Earl of Devon, in Paris, finished on Thursday. The books went high. The jewels, which were fine and in great quantity, sold cheap. The produce of the entire sale is variously reported from £30,000 to £60,000 British, all of which, with other property, in all, it is said, £100,000 or £120,000 goes to his Lordship’s butler.
1836 Richard Polwhele, Reminiscences, in Prose and Verse:
- I was very sensible of Mr. Champernowne’s kindness to me at a masquerade, where I was paying my respects to the present [Earl] Courtenay. It was a splendid masquerade indeed ; and the whole scenery, from Powderham to Exeter, beyond description magnificent—illuminated as was the river Exe through its whole extent, from yachts and barges, and all the variety of fireworks. But to return to Champernowne. My neighbours, Messrs. (Prebendary) and (Archdeacon) Andrew, had agreed with me to go unmasked, as being more decorous in clergymen. With me, the unpleasant consequence was, that several of my subscribers to my “History of Devonshire,” taking advantage of my ” open countenance,” attacked me most unmercifully about my book; —which Champernowne perceiving, interposed in my favour, and stood by me till released by a Turkish Ambassador (Lord Courtenay), whose protection from such impertinence was not less powerful. Mr. Templar took me from Powderham to my own house at Kenton, in his carriage. I shall never forget the dawn of that day, the park, the plantations gradually opening upon us, the morning star fading in the east, the horizon one fine flush of crimson and of gold, the dewdrops on the trees and shrubs fresh and sparkling, and every breeze wafting ” life and fragrance,” and the lark mounting high. Such were more than enough to call forth strains, responsive to ” his trembling thrilling ecstacy.”
1837 William Carpenter, Peerage for the People:
- He [2nd viscount] died in December 1788, and was succeeded by his only son, William, the late Peer, who for many years resided abroad, under very “peculiar circumstances.” In March, 1831, his claim to the earldom of Devon was established by the decision of the House of Lords, when his ten surviving sisters assumed the title and rank of Earl’s daughters. He died in Paris, in May, 1835, wifeless and childless, in the 67th year of his age. The whole of his personal property, amounting, it is said, to upwards of 120,000l. sterling, was bequeathed to his butler!
1839 James Renwick, Life of Robert Fulton:
- [In New York in 1811] The heir of the title and the fortunes of the Courtenays became a refugee in our land, under circumstances of disgrace and humiliation, even more terrible than those which led to the assumption of the mournful motto of his race. [Ubi lapsus, quid feci?] Suspected and accused of an infamous crime, his birth and title, which have in many other instances served as passports even for vice and frivolity to American hospitality, did not avail him, and every door was closed against him except that of Fulton. The feelings of Fulton were probably those, which lead the benevolent to minister to the comforts, and to soothe the mental anguish of the last hours of the condemned criminal; but, in the instance we allude to, it required not only the existence of such feelings, but a high degree of courage, to exercise them, in the face of a popular impression, which, whether well or ill founded, was universally entertained. [See Benson John Lossing 1861 for a different story.]
1849 Elizabeth Ham in her autobiography, edited by Eric Gillett and published in 1945 as Elizabeth Ham by Herself 1783-1820. She did not keep a journal and was relying on her memories when she wrote this text between 1849 and 1852. Elizabeth Ham mostly lived at Weymouth so may have been familiar with the appearance of William and his sisters from their visits to that town. The description is included in her account of a visit with two friends to the Park and grounds at Powderham some time around 1800.
- He was the last of that branch of the family, and, I think, of ten children, all the rest girls. From the fair and delicate appearance of His Lordship, and from the circumstances of his being always seen with his sisters, and never with any gentlemen, I wove my own romance about him, and set him down to be really a daughter too. He or she lived mostly, and died, abroad. The sisters were all very beautiful, but two of them at different times were burnt to death by their clothes igniting. There was a story current that each had been foretold of her fate by the celebrated Portsmouth Fortune-teller.
1857 Me Limet, lawyer for Mme Batty [see ‘Marie Courtenay’]:
- Sa vie était mystérieuse; il sortait seul ou avec les deux filles de son intendant Woods. On l’avait surnommé l’ours de Draveil.
[His life was a mystery; he went out on his own or with the two daughters of his steward, Woods. People called him the bear of Draveil.]
1859 Cyrus Redding, Memoirs of William Beckford of Fonthill
- Returning [from Plymouth] by way of Exeter, a visit was paid to the family of his relative, Lord Courtenay, at Powderham Castle, near that city. His family consisted of a son and twelve daughters. His lordship died in 1788. He had built a lofty tower in his park, which commanded one of the finest and most extensive views in the kingdom, with which young Beckford was quite enchanted.
1861 Benson John Lossing, The Hudson, from the wilderness to the sea, part 20. Published in London monthly magazine, The art-journal, vol. 7, 1 September 1861, p. 280. [The edition published in 1866 as a book uses a revised text but the differences in these extracts are very small.]
- Upon the high promontory overlooking the Hudson, on the south side of Manhattanville, is Jones’s Claremont Hotel, a fashionable place of resort for the pleasure-seekers who frequent the Bloomingdale and Kingsbridge roads on pleasant afternoons: at such times it is often thronged with visitors, and presents a lively appearance. The main, or older portion of the building, was erected, I believe, by the elder Dr. Post, early in the present century, as a summer residence, and named by him Claremont. It still belongs to the Post family. It was an elegant country mansion, upon a most desirable spot, overlooking many leagues of the Hudson. There, about fifty years ago, lived Viscount Courtenay, afterwards Earl of Devon. He left England, it was reported, because of political troubles. When the war of 1812 broke out, he returned, leaving his furniture and plate, which were sold at auction; the latter is preserved with care by the family of the purchasers. Courtenay was a great “lion” in New York; he was a handsome bachelor, with title, fortune, and reputation–a combination of excellences calculated to captivate the heart-desires of the opposite sex.
- He [Francis James Jackson] was politically and socially unpopular, and presented a strong contrast to the polished Courtenay. [See James Renwick 1839 for a different story.]
1866 author of Don Leon (published as ‘a poem by the late Lord Byron’ but of uncertain authorship):
- Thou ermined judge, pull off that sable cap! / What! Cans’t thou lie, and take thy morning nap? / Peep thro’ the casement; see the gallows there: / Thy work hangs on it; could not mercy spare? / What had he done? Ask crippled Talleyrand, / Ask Beckford, Courtenay, all the motley band / Of priest and laymen, who have shared his guilt / (If guilt it be) then slumber if thou wilt;
- Too proud to tilt upon plebeian ground, / Of Norman blood a minion Beckford found;
1866 Maurice Lenihan, History of Limerick, p. 449.
- […] the aggravation, if not the commencement, of these agrarian troubles, in the county Limerick at least, was generally ascribed to the oppressive treatment of the tenants on the Courtenay estates, which were at this time under the management of an exceedingly unpopular agent. These immense and beautiful estates, granted to the ancestors of the Earl of Devon by Queen Elizabeth, had been in the hands of English trustees, the then owner, Lord Viscount Courtenay, residing in some part of America. He had been selling this old forfeiture for some years, the sales amounting to some £200,000; but he had still remaining 42,000 Irish plantation acres—from which fact it will easily be inferred what great influence for good or evil one individual possessed in a country where all depended on agriculture for their support. The agent was a Mr. Hoskins, whose son was murdered by the followers of Captain Rock, and who was succeeded by a gentleman of a very different character, Albert Furlong, Esq., of Dublin.
1887 Edward Walford, Chapters from Family Chests | pp. 68-69:
- Towards the end of the reign of George IV., however, a claim to the ancient earldom was preferred by William, Lord Courtenay, of Powderham Castle, as a descendant of Hugh de Courtenay, second of the old earls of Devon; and, after a long investigation before a Committee of Privileges, it was resolved by the House of Lords in March, 1831, that the claim had been clearly established. The new earl, however, who had long resided in Paris, where he led a self-indulgent and eccentric life, never came to England to take his seat in the House of Peers, the doors of which he had sought, at such cost of money and labour, to have opened in his favour. [As viscount Courtenay, William already had a seat in the House of Lords which he first took in March 1790.]
1904 H. M. Imbert-Terry, The royal Courtenays, published in Memorials of old Devonshire, edited by F. J. Snell | pp. 57-59:
- […] In the reign of William III., an offer of an English Barony was made to the head of the Courtenays, and again refused; but in 1762, the many services of Sir William Courtenay, eighth of the name, merited a higher honour, and he, accepting a Peerage, took his seat in the House of Lords as Viscount Courtenay of Powderham Castle.
- Only surviving his elevation some six months, he was succeeded by his son, who, marrying a lady of less exalted lineage than himself, became the parent of one son and thirteen daughters.
- This only son and heir, the tenth in thirteen generations who successively bore the name of William, on the advice, it is said, of that distinguished lawyer, Mr. Pepys, afterwards Lord Chancellor and first Earl of Cottenham, in 1830 asserted, by petition to Parliament, his right to the ancient Earldom of Devon. The grounds of the claim were as follows: When, in the year 1553, Sir Edward Courtenay, son of Henry, Marquis of Exeter and Earl of Devonshire, attainted and executed by Henry VIII., after having suffered a long confinement in the Tower, obtained from Queen Mary his release, she annulled the attainder, and created him, by special patent, “to hold the title and dignity of Earl of Devon with the said honours and pre-eminence thereunto belonging, to the aforesaid Edward and his heir male for ever” (“prefato Edwardo et heredibus suis masculis imperpetuum”). And this phrase is again repeated later: “Do grant to the aforesaid now Earl that he and his heirs male may enjoy … the same pre-eminence as any of the ancestors of the said Earl being heretofore Earl of Devon may have enjoyed.”
- With great lucidity and deep knowledge of the subject, Mr. Pepys maintained that, whereas in the majority of patents it was usual to restrict the title to the recipient and his direct descendants (heirs male of his body), in this instance, as shown by the wording of the deed, the Sovereign deliberately intended to restore the Earldom to the heir male of Hugh, second Earl of Devon, which position was undoubtedly occupied by the claimant, William, Viscount Courtenay.
- Certain cases were cited in support of this contention, especially the charter given by Richard II. creating William le Scrope Earl of Wiltshire, and special reference was made to a patent of Charles I. appointing Lewis Boyle Baron of Bandon Bridge, which contained a declaration explaining the express intention of words absolutely similar to those used in the deed concerning the Earldom of Devon. The claim was tried before the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords, consisting of the 59Lord Chancellor (Lord Brougham) and Lord Wynford, who himself, as Sir W. Draper-Best, had lately been raised to the peerage, for the reason, as Greville, in his Memoirs, amusingly remarks, “that he is to assist the Chancellor in deciding Scotch causes of which he knows nothing whatever; as the Chancellor knows nothing either, the Scotch law is likely to be strangely administered.” The decision in this case which related to an English peerage, however, was eminently just, and the House resolved and adjudged: “That William, Viscount Courtenay, hath made out his claim to the title, honour, and dignity of Earl of Devon.”
- By this decision, William, Lord Courtenay, succeeded to one of the great historical titles of England, for the Earl of Devon is justly entitled to rank with his brothers of Shrewsbury, Derby, Huntingdon, and Pembroke, who, occupying Earldoms created before 1600, have been designated Catskin Earls—a name concerning the derivation of which authorities differ, some alleging that the ancient trimming of an Earl’s gown consisted of cat skin, in the place of ermine; while others are inclined to believe that in early times Peers of this rank were permitted to wear four (quatre) rows of fur on their coronation robes. It is to be feared that now this question “des jupons” will never be definitely settled.
- On the successful issue of his claim, William, ninth Earl of Devon, both at Powderham, in London, and in Paris, maintained a state which, however worthy of the vast domains appertaining to his great ancestors, yet cast a heavy burden on the mere moderate appanage inherited by himself, with the inevitable result that the estates were encumbered and the successor to the title seriously embarrassed. He died, a bachelor, in 1835, being succeeded by his cousin, William, the representative of a younger branch of the family derived from Sir William Courtenay, third Baronet.
1910 Lewis Melville, The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill
- Beckford paid a visit to his relative, Lord Courtenay, at Powderham Castle, near Exeter; and then went to stay with Charles Hamilton, Member of Parliament for Truro, who lived at Pain’s Hill, near Weybridge.
- The years 1783 to 1786 make little call upon Beckford’s biographer. The honey-moon had been spent in travelling, and when it was over, the bride and bride-groom, still ardent lovers, stayed for a while at Cologny, near Geneva.
1915 Alice Crary Sutcliffe, Robert Fulton
- If you had been working very hard, and suddenly received an order from an influential man to do a responsible piece of work for him, you would be very happy over it. Such a pleasure came to Robert Fulton in 1791, when Lord Courtenay, the Earl of Devon, invited the young artist to visit his famous country estate, Powderham Castle, during the vacation month of June, to paint his lordship’s portrait. | The castle in Devonshire, which is one of England’s most beautiful counties, was about two hundred miles from London. There the Earl lived in princely grandeur, and admitted to his court only persons of equal rank; all others were entertained by his steward, a gentleman of birth and education. | This visit proved a turning-point in Fulton’s life. With high hope he made the journey by stage-coach, reveling in the springtime glory of the wooded country-side. The study of the art treasures in the castle, and his appreciation of them, led to a later tour of other famous country-estates in England, and he became familiar with the great masterpieces of painting which hung in the spacious private galleries of the nobility, for Lord Courtenay, pleased with Fulton’s fulfilment of the intrusted commission, introduced him to all his friends. […]
- Among them were two men of rank and high intelligence, the Duke of Bridgewater and Earl Stanhope, whose influence at this time seems partly responsible for a sudden change in Fulton’s line of thought.
1925-30 John Hodgkin, from the draft of an essay held at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford (MS Eng Lett c. 11 fols. 67-82). © Bodleian Libraries.
- in my opinion the only deduction possible from the evidence now printed is that the person known by the name of Lord William Courtenay was a woman!
- The preliminary facts are as follows:– the prolific spouse of Lord William Courtenay the 2nd Visct, having borne her Lord and Master 4 girls in succession, on the 30th July, 1768, presented him with another child, who according to the present theory was in all probability, if not certainty – one of those freaks of Nature, where through an abnormality the female simulates the male – anyhow, rightly or wrongly, a son and heir being without doubt desired, the question of its sex was settled by the child being christened “William” and brought up as a boy. In due course Lady Courtenay gave birth to nine more daughters, the whole family thus being fourteen children, thirteen girls and “William”!
- Such secrets are difficult to keep, and it is quite certain that amongst others in addition to the Courtenay family, William Beckford, “Louisa”, i.e. Mrs Peter Beckford, Alexander Cozens, the artist, and most intimate friend of Beckford, and the Rev Samuel Henley were cognisant of the facts,
1932 John W. Oliver, The Life of William Beckford:
- a singularly beautiful child, as the portrait of him painted by Romney for Beckford about 1781-3 shows.3 [Oliver’s footnote:] 3 Memoir of J. R. Cozens by Mr. C. F. Bell in the Catalogue of Drawings by John Robert Cozens, Burlington Club, 1922-3 (p. 10).
- In apportioning blame it is only fair to Beckford to remember that the life of Courtenay (afterwards Earl of Devon) ended, years after he and Beckford had drifted apart, in shame and moral catastrophe.
1937 Guy Chapman, Beckford:
- To a romantic, such as our traveller [Beckford at Powderham in the summer of 1779], the boy with his long curls, his languid eyes, his pretty straight features, seemed the very incarnation of Hylas, that squire of Hercules whom the nymphs stole. The creature, moreover, displayed certain gifts of taste and traits agreeable to his guest
- The ‘flowers and foolery’, ‘the sistering at Powderham’, had done their mischief. William Courtenay, third viscount, had earned for himself in good earnest the epithets which had been bestowed on his [Beckford’s] one-time friend. His reputation was so evil that when he started to build a house in the neighbourhood of Torquay, the inhabitants chased his masons out of the parish.
1954 Boyd Alexander, The Journal of William Beckford in Portugal and Spain:
- he [Beckford] was ridiculously partial to an effeminate youth, William Courtenay
1961 Kenneth Neill Cameron, Shelley and his Circle:
- He was apparently not active in either political or religious affairs, but he had extensive estates in Ireland and seems to have been particularly harsh in their administration, and he had a reputation for dissolute living, both characteristics calculated to excite Shelley’s wrath. [for Shelley’s letter of 1811, see William in the words of others 1]
- [from TC Banks’s 1831 Letter to Lord Brougham] we gather that Courtenay’s reputation was somewhat unsavory.
1962 Boyd Alexander, England’s Wealthiest Son:
- The boy was to be the cause of his social ruin.
- He [Beckford] developed heady passions for pretty youths, some of whom, like Courtenay, turned out to be worthless.
- William was eleven, a girlish boy of intelligence and sensibility, the youngest of thirteen children (all the rest were girls), the darling of the nursery.
- Was it that Beckford turned round and blamed Courtenay for his own fate and his own weakness? All that we subsequently know of Courtenay, and the portrait of him by Romney in 1791 [sic], support Beckford’s judgement. In the parallel case of Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, we know that it was the latter who was the corrupter and who exploited his older friend’s weakness.
- Fled to France to escape arrest as homosexual, 1811. Died unmarried in Paris in obscurity. Instrument of B’s ruin, 1784.
1962 Harold Nicholson, reviewing Boyd Alexander’s England’s Wealthiest Son in The Observer:
- Little Lord Courtenay also had in the end to fly the country and ended his days in debasement in Paris.
- His [Beckford’s] was certainly a repulsive character […]
- One would have felt deep compassion for Beckford, were it not that he was so boastful, so heartless and so mean. All we feel is regret that the Courtenay scandal should have received so much publicity. I am sorry for Lord Courtenay.
1962 Anthony Powell, reviewing Boyd Alexander’s England’s Wealthiest Son in The Daily Telegraph:
- Courtenay himself was a far from blameless figure. He died abroad in 1835, having fled to escape arrest for a homosexual offence. The confirmation of the title [earl of Devon] to him had been a somewhat extraordinary one (Mr. Alexander might have spared a page to this), as, briefly, he had inherited through his grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather, all of whom were unconscious of their right to this dignity. The parallel of Beckford as Wilde to Courtenay’s Lord Alfred Douglas and Loughborough’s Lord Queensberry comes readily to mind.
- In pictures and architecture Beckford’s taste was always lively. He was passionately fond of music. All the same, there was something lacking. Is is that Beckford, judged by his own high standards, was not really intelligent? Is it that in some way, although he possessed charm, he did not have an interesting mind?
1963 Mark Girouard, Country Life weekly magazine 4, 11 & 18 July: Powderham Castle, Devon (these comments are included in the third part, published on 18 July).
- It must have seemed an excellent idea to the 3rd Viscount, who was young, sociable, musical and rich, to build a music-room on a grand scale, which could be used for concerts, plays and dances.
- The 3rd Viscount is chiefly remembered today because of his connection as a boy with William Beckford – a connection that culminated in the scandal of 1784, which forced Beckford temporarily out of England and made him a social outcast for the rest of his life. What exactly happened at Powderham in October of that year will perhaps never be known for certain; recent biographies of Beckford tend to the theory that what was no more than a dangerous sentimental friendship was magnified into a scandal by William Courtenay’s brother-in-law, the capable but sinister Lord Loughborough, who seems to have been obsessed with a pathological hatred of Beckford. However, there is no doubt that the 3rd Viscount went to the bad in a big way later on in his life: he left England for ever in 1810, lived for a time in a house outside New York, but finally settled in a house on the Place Vendôme in Paris, where he died in 1835. During his 25 years abroad Powderham stood abandoned and desolate, and a considerable proportion of its contents were sold up. But this melancholy conclusion should not be allowed to obscure the credit side of the 3rd Viscount’s Powderham record. The music-room, the Marsh and Tatham furniture, and the Cosways survive as impressive evidence of his taste: he and his sisters had considerable artistic talent too, as a number of flower paintings still at Powderham and the decorative wall paintings in the music-room, all painted by them, bear witness.
1970 H. Montgomery Hyde, The Other Love:
- He was a singularly beautiful boy, judging by the portrait which Romney painted of him in his early teens at the instance of his friend William Beckford.
- Lord Courtenay, who on his father’s death had inherited Powderham, where he lived a curious bachelor life with one of his unmarried sisters, became an inveterate homosexual and, as the years went on, less and less discreet in his behaviour.
1975 Lady Paulina Pepys, Powderham Castle:
- The 3rd Viscount was one of the most interesting members of the Courtenay family. Unfortunately, however, his life was to be rather tragic. When still a boy he became involved in a scandal with the notorious William Beckford, and this probably overshadowed the rest of his life. As a rich and talented young man he entertained on a lavish scale, but Powderham acquired a bad reputation locally. Later on he left England for good and lived first in New York and then in Paris, where he died unmarried in 1835. Four years before his death, however, the 3rd Viscount successfully reclaimed the Earldom of Devon, which had been in abeyance since 1556.
1976 James Lees-Milne, William Beckford:
- Indeed Courtenay’s character and conduct deteriorated with age.
1977 James Lees-Milne, The Powderham Castle Affair:
- Indeed Kitty Courtenay never came to much good. […] Yet Kitty Courtenay was not irredeemably contemptible. After all, at the time of the Powderham scandal he was only just sixteen. If he behaved in a cowardly fashion he was submitted to formidable pressures. He was genuinely musical and artistic. […] His own drawings were above the average in competence and charm.
1979 Brian Fothergill, Beckford of Fonthill:
- His [Beckford’s] adoration, which was certainly deep though also very self-indulgent, is difficult to explain in view of the strange lack of personality shown by the object of his affection, both then and later. His [William’s] character was shallow and he seemed to have few positive qualities; he was to develop into a singularly worthless individual.
- [in the spring of 1784] Beckford, as Courtenay’s future history was to show, was pinning his hopes on a false conception of the boy’s character. How ever much he might respond momentarily to the older man’s ridicule of his effeminate tendencies or obsession with the trivialities of fashion, his character remained irredeemably weak and shallow. To what extent Beckford himself was himself responsible for this lack of development to blame in the boy whom he had so caressed and flattered a few years earlier is a matter of opinion;
- [Beckford in the winter of 1784/85] now, at long last, he saw Courtenay as he really was, no longer the seductive ephebe of his imagination but a pathetic, weak, crushed and spiritless youth lacking in both loyalty and strength of character. […] Courtenay’s subsequent career was to end in tragedy and disgrace. He succeeded his father as third viscount in 1788, but once his own master his character, never very strong, gave way completely and his ill-concealed homosexual activities soon made him notorious.
1985 Cynthia Owen Philip, Robert Fulton. p. 23 and p. 107
- young Courtenay was a notorious homosexual, famous for having been seduced at sixteen by William Beckford, a collector of old masters and armorial bearings who was equally renowned for keeping a French dwarf as a valet and for fancying very young boys. His corruption of Courtenay was England’s most gossiped-about sodomy case, scandalous not because pederasty was unusual at the time — quite the contrary — but because the particulars were made known by Courtenay’s own family. An only son with eleven older and three younger sisters, Courtenay had a position to maintain. | Although Beckford’s sequestered Gothic folly, Fonthill Abbey, was within easy traveling distance of Powderham, visiting back and forth was probably limited, for Beckford had soon tired of Courtenay, viciously snapping, “il se pare comme une poupée et se farde comme une p–.” (He decks himself out like a doll and paints his face like a p[rostutute].) […]
- It is possible that Fulton and Barlow were lovers. Fulton’s long residence at Powderham as the protégé of a transvestite suggests that, at the least, he had a propensity for bisexuality. […]
1991 Christie’s Auctions & Private Sales | Live Auction 4692 Important English Furniture | Lot 222
- William 3rd Viscount Courtenay and later 9th Earl of Devon (1768-1835), who shared his close friend William Beckford Junior’s antiquarian, musical and theatrical interests, and celebrated his coming-of-age in 1791 with a magnificent masquerade ball. A few years later (1794-96) he employed Beckford’s architect at Fonthill, James Wyatt (d. 1813) to create a grand neo-classical Music Room at Powderham Castle, to also serve as a ballroom and theatre.
- Lord Courtenay would certainly be highly aware of contemporary Parisian style as he was in Paris on several occasions with Beckford, who rented the Hotel d’Orsay in rue de Varenne from the Comte d’Orsay in 1788 and who was in Paris frequently, both during and after the Revolution.
1992 Rictor Norton, Mother Clap’s Molly House:
- When this self-styled Caliph [William Beckford] was 19, he fell in love with the Hon. William Courtenay, later 3rd Viscount and 9th Earl of Devon, then ten years old and regarded as one of the most beautiful boys in England, borne out by paintings of him. […] the country squire [Beckford] and his ‘Kitty’, as the beautiful Courtenay was effeminately dubbed.
1992 Susan Sontag, The Volcano Lover | A Romance:
- The love of his life was eleven when they met, and William [William Beckford] had been courting and fondling for four years before they were found one morning in the boy’s bed. When Viscount Courtenay barred William from his house and threatened to bring suit if he ever dared approach his son again, William crossed the Channel and headed south.
1997 Janet Cusack, The Rise of Yachting in England and South Devon Revisited, 1640-1827:
- The death of the second Viscount Courtenay in 1788 and the majority of the third viscount in 1789 seems to have unleashed a spectacular period of conspicuous consumption at Powderham, one aspect of which was a series of sailing races at Starcross. In 1799 Lord Courtenay presented prizes for a sailing race on the Exe, and similar annual contests followed until 1802. These events clearly provided their sponsor with the opportunity for personal display. […] [for a contemporary report of such a contest, see William in the words of others 1: 1800]
1998 Timothy Mowl, William Beckford | Composing for Mozart:
- [by the spring of 1784] Courtenay had become a neurotic adolescent
2004 Dorothy Presswell, John Wilkinson of Lincoln‘s Inn (newsletter of the Camden History Society, November 2004):
- It is through these letters of John Wilkinson that we can appreciate Courtenay as having been a kind, caring and generous man who must have been charismatic in the extreme. His servants were devoted to him and in return the Viscount treated them not as his household but, in the trauma of his exile, as members of his family and made provision for them accordingly. A man of great courtesy, he was also intelligent and cultured, but his great weakness was a lifelong self-indulgence that affected all aspects of his life. His distress at his banishment from his family home at Powderham is evident and his desire to return ‘to see the dear old place’ moved the kindly Wilkinson to write ‘Poor Lord Courtenay, most sincerely do I pity him and never were my feelings for him more intensely aroused than they were on my reading the letter’.
2009 Dorothy Presswell, The exiled earl:
- p.3 […] not an empty headed fop but a very charismatic (albeit mercurial), intelligent, kind and caring man […] Extravagant he certainly was, to the point of being deplorable, and his blatant homosexual lifestyle cannot be denied. These, together with his lifelong attitude towards self indulgence, affected all aspects of his life and it can be said of him that he lived life in every sense except that which is called common sense.
- p.13 […] some of Beckford’s admirers have placed much emphasis on the fact that William Courtenay was callow, pretty, petulant and effeminate, thus implying that he was partly responsible for Beckford’s passionate pursuit of him. Viewed from the distance of over two centuries, it is fair to observe that, if it can be acknowledged that child abuse exists in the twenty-first century, then surely it can be acknowledged that child abuse existed in the eighteenth century. Callow, pretty, petulant and effeminate he might have been, but what transpired was an abuse which, after his seduction, continued both in London and in Devon until Courtenay was sixteen years of age.
- p. 16 When the third Viscount inherited his wealth in December 1788, he was but 20 years of age. If self indulgent young men had, at that time, been recorded on a list marked ‘hedonists’ his name would have been awarded high precedence. Life for the third Viscount was for total pleasure and yet when reading contemporary accounts of his lifestyle at that time, it becomes obvious that alongside his hedonism, he was developing into a courteous and sensitive individual.
- p.21 Those who have had an interest in projecting Courtenay as a subject for total disapproval have tended to overlook the fact that when he inherited the title in 1788, he also inherited family responsibilities for his many sisters, the youngest of whom was only 7 years of age. It was a daunting prospect for a young man of 20 but, it would appear that over the years, he rose to the occasion with admirable effort. Bearing in mind his cultural attributes, it would have been expected of him that he should go on The Grand Tour, an occasion that he would have thoroughly enjoyed, but he remained in England, providing a secure home life for his unmarried sisters, ensuring that they were launched into society, finding them suitable husbands and revelling in the noise and bustle of their companionship. He was, in truth, a kind and loving brother who basked in the warmth of a happy home.
2009 James S. Donnelly, Jr., Captain Rock:
- Courtenay himself was the antithesis of a “good landlord.”
- Because of his openly gay lifestyle, Lord Courtenay (called “Kitty” by his relatives and friends) was the target of such hostility and prejudice from heterosexuals that he was compelled to live abroad for most of his adult life – a life spent in grand extravagance of many kinds. […] Upon his death in 1835 the English tenants of the ninth Earl of Devon (as he had become) reportedly welcomed his return in a stately funeral to the family seat at Powderham Castle in Devonshire. His Irish tenants would never have been so hospitable.
- the profligate Lord Courtenay […] an extravagant, “playboy” proprietor who never showed his face in Ireland
2009 James Miller, introduction to the Powderham Castle lots in the catalogue for Sotheby’s 2009 auction from Two Noble Collections.
- William, 3rd Viscount Courtenay, who as a youth had been altogether too much admired by William Beckford, came into his inheritance in 1788. During the next fifteen years he transformed the castle, aided by the architect, James Wyatt, the sculptor Richard Westmacott, and the furniture makers, Elward, Marsh and Tatham.
- Courtenay’s elegant taste can be gauged from the items that survive from this period, many of which are offered in this sale. It is evident from the description of other rooms that he had a very clear sense of how a room should look. In the best bedroom for instance, the furniture was all painted in white and gold, whereas in his own bedroom, brown and gold was the order of the day.
- Courtenay’s character which was largly to spend and not to count the cost.
- In 1809 further attempts were taken to curb Courtenay when Expenditure & the keeping up of the present establishments of the Rt. Hon. Lord Visc. Courtenay at Powderham Castle and London were drawn up. In all, that year had cost him a staggering £30,311 with £5,000 paid for upholstery in London and Exeter for his yacht. The denouement came the following year when Lord Courtenay left England forever to escape mounting creditors. He first took up residence outside New York but after the defeat of Napoleon found Paris more amenable, living not uncomfortably until his death in 1835 inthe Place Vendome.
2009 Sotheby’s catalogue Two Noble Collections | Powderham Castle & Seaton Delaval Hall.
- Known affectionately as ‘Kitty’ he was, for a time, the focus of the attentions of the great collector William Beckford (1760-1844).
- Notoriously extravagant, in 1811 Lord Courtenay was forced to leave Powderham Castle for America in order to escape his creditors. He remained there until 1825-1826 when he purchased the Chateau Dreveil in Paris where he continued to reside in great style until his death. In 1831, twelve days before he died, the House of Lords revived in his favour the Earldom of Devon, which had until that time, been dominant [sic] for nearly three centuries.
2014 Morphy Auctions, Firearms | Fall 2014 | Lot 1409
- Fabulous pair of 1775 dated T. English bronze cannon of Viscount “Kitty” Courtenay of Powderham Castle.
- The cannon are mounted on old oak naval carriages with brass fittings. These cannon and carriages were found in upstate New York and no doubt were brought to America where the flamboyant Kitty Courtenay fled after his scandalous relationship with the novelist, politician, art collector and profligate William Beckford. Beckford inherited a one million pound fortune which would be like a billionaire today. He indulged himself living a life few could dream of even being taught music by no other than Mozart himself and studying art under Alexander Cozens. Beckford, though married, had numerous affairs with boys and women including William Courtenay, which started when Beckford was 18 and Courtenay was only 11; when this affair was discovered and published in London newspapers, Beckford chose self exile from polite British society and continued on with his illicit affairs. Third Viscount William “Kitty” Courtenay of Powderham was one of 14 children and the only boy, also being born into great wealth and power. Courtenay’s infamous affair forced him to live abroad. He lived in the United States on property he owned on the Hudson River in New York and later in Paris, dying there in 1831 as The Earl of Devon. There is still an identical pair of cannons found at Powderham Castle
Image
Page history
- 2019 March 26: first published online.
- 2020 May 1: 1836, Richard Polwhele Reminiscences added.
- 2022 May 24: 1859, Cyrus Redding Memoirs of William Beckford of Fonthill; 1910, Lewis Melville The Life and Letters of William Beckford of Fonthill; 1915, Alice Crary Sutcliffe Robert Fulton added.
- 2022 June 30: 1849, Elizabeth Ham by Herself added.
- 2022 July 3: 1975, lady Paulina Pepys, Powderham Castle added.
- 2022 July 6: 1963, Mark Girouard, Powderham Castle, Devon added.
- 2022 July 21: 2009, James Miller; Sotheby’s catalogue added.
- 2022 July 31: 1991, Christie’s Auctions & Private Sales, and 2014, Morphy Auctions added.
- 2022 September 13 2022: Benson John Lossing revised and relocated from 1866 to 1861.
- 2022 September 16: 1985, Cynthia Owen Philip, Robert Fulton added.
- 2023 March 16: third paragraph expanded.
- 2023 April 10: 1985, Cynthia Owen Philip, Robert Fulton expanded.
- 2023 August 18: 1866, Maurice Lenihan, History of Limerick added.
- 2023 August 29: 1904, H. M. Imbert-Terry, The royal Courtenays added.
- 2023 December 13: 1835, Bristol Mercury and Belfast News-Letter added.
- 2024 January 17: 2004, Dorothy Presswell added.
- 2024 October 10: 1835, Southern Reporter added.
- 2024 December 11: 1925-30, John Hodgkin added.
- 2025 April 28: 1835, Weekly Dispatch added.
- 2025 August 5: 2008, Dorothy Presswell added.
William Courtenay (1768-1835) 