Family and Education

b. 2 Nov. 1781, 4th s. of William Henry Cavendish Bentinck^†, 3rd Duke of Portland, by Lady Dorothy Cavendish, da. of William Cavendish^†, 4th Duke of Devonshire; bro. of Lords William Charles Augustus Cavendish Bentinck*, William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, Mq. of Titchfield*, and William Henry Cavendish Bentinck* educ. Westminster 1797. m. 16 Sept. 1820, Lady Mary Lowther, da. of William Lowther*, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, 1s.

Offices Held

Ensign 32 Ft. 1798; lt. 24 Drag. 1798, capt. 1799; capt. 52 Ft. 1803; maj. 45 Ft. 1804; lt.-col. 7 Ft. 1804, 45 Ft. 1804, brevet col. 1813; lt.-col. 1 Ft. Gds. 1814-21, maj.-gen. 1819; col. 58 Ft. 1826-d.; capt. commdt. Mansfield vol. cav. 1819.

Biography

Lord Frederick served in Ireland in 1798 and with the allied armies in Italy in 1799. He was an Austrian volunteer in the battles of Novi and Marengo, was at the siege of Alexandria and at the blockade of Genoa. In 1801 he became a.d.c. to the commander-in-chief in Ireland. He subsequently served in Sicily, Spain and in the Walcheren expedition. While his father lived, he took a keen interest in his son’s military career, drawing the King’s attention to it.1

In 1816 Lord Frederick was returned to Parliament by his cousin the 2nd Marquess of Bath, on a vacancy for Weobley. He soon lost interest, decamping to Belvoir by 6 Mar., when he assured the frantic chief whip that he and Charles Manners had paired with Lord Yarborough’s sons on the army estimates and he would be back for the property tax, or earlier, if Lord Bath summoned him.2 But he paired against the property tax, 18 Mar., and against the opposition motion for retrenchment, 25 Apr. He attended for ministers on the civil list questions, 6 and 24 May, and on the public revenue bill, 20 June. He opposed Catholic relief on 21 May 1816 and 9 May 1817. On 30 Jan. 1817 William Howard informed his father Lord Carlisle, a day after the division on the address:

The Duke of Portland, I hear, has expressed his determination not to support the present government ... But Fred Bentinck, who is brought in by Lord Bath, made amends to the ministers for the loss of his brother’s support, for he paired off with two persons, and voted into the bargain; a species of trinity which is quite new in the House of Commons.3

He supported the suspension of habeas corpus, 23 June 1817, his last known vote in that Parliament.

Lord Frederick was active in support of Sir Murray Maxwell in the Westminster by-election late in 1818 and particularly hostile to the radical John Cam Hobhouse’s pretensions.4 He was a defaulter from the House on 3 and 29 Mar. 1819, but on 31 Mar. made his only known speech before 1820, in defence of the sentence of a court martial on a soldier absent without leave to attend a committee of the House. He voted with government against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May, and for the foreign enlistment bill, 10 June 1819. On 10 Nov. he became captain of the Mansfield volunteers. He died at Rome, 11 Feb. 1828.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes

• 1. Gent. Mag. (1828), i. 363; Geo. III Corresp. iv. 3015; v. 3794.
• 2. T.64/260, Cavendish Bentinck to Arbuthnot, 6 Mar. [1816].
• 3. Carlisle mss.
• 4. Sheffield City Lib. Wharncliffe mss, Cavendish Bentinck to Stuart Wortley, 26 Nov., 1 Dec. 1818; Add. 47223, f. 3.