Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet

Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet (2 June 1768 – 25 September 1843)[2] was a British Whig politician, Lord Mayor of London from 1815 to 1817, and from 1817 until his death in 1843 a reformist Member of Parliament.

For other uses, see Matthew Wood.
Sir
Matthew Wood
Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet, wearing the chain of the Lord Mayor of London. Portrait by Arthur William Devis
Lord Mayor of London
In office
1815–1817
Preceded bySamuel Birch
Succeeded byChristopher Smith
Member of Parliament for the City of London
In office
June 1817 – 25 September 1843
Preceded byHarvey Christian Combe
Succeeded byJames Pattison
Personal details
Born
Matthew Wood

2 June 1768
Tiverton, Devon
Died25 September 1843
London, United Kingdom
SpouseMaria Page
Children6

Arms of Woode of Hareston: Argent, on a mount in base proper an oak tree vert fructed or[1]
Moments of Pleasure - a satirical engraving by Theodore Lane showing Lady Anne Hamilton; Sir Matthew Wood, 1st Baronet and Caroline of Brunswick

Early life

Matthew Wood was the son of William Wood (died 1809), a serge maker from Exeter and Tiverton both in Devon, by his wife Catherine Cluse (died 1798).[3] He was descended from the Wood family of Hareston[4] in the parish of Brixton in Devon, which the family had inherited by marriage to the heiress of the Carslake family.[5] The present Page-Wood baronets quarter the arms of Carslake Argent, a bull's head erased sable.[6]

Political career

He was educated briefly at Blundell's School in Tiverton, before being obliged to help his ailing father. He was apprenticed to his cousin, an Exeter chemist and druggist, but moved to London in 1790 to set himself up in business.[7]

Lord Mayor of London

He was a member of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers,[8] of which he became Prime Warden, a member of the Court of Aldermen of the City of London, and served as Sheriff of the City of London for 1809 and as Lord Mayor of London from 1815 to 1817.[9] He won popularity in the role by encouraging resistance to unpopular government measures and by his vigour as first magistrate in seeking to suppress the London underworld.[10]

In December 1816, as Mayor he dispersed the Spa Fields riot, but went on to present the Regent a petition expressing the rioters demands for popular representation and reform.[10]

Parliamentary reformer

Wood was a founder member of the Hampden Club and of the Union Society for parliamentary reform in 1812. This was under the aegis of John Cartwright, whose parliamentary election campaign he supported in 1814.[10]

In June 1817, Wood was elected unopposed[11] as a Member of Parliament for the City of London following the resignation of Harvey Christian Combe MP.[8] He held the seat until his death in 1843.[12][13]

Wood was a prominent partisan and adviser of Queen Caroline on her return to England in 1820. Wood had carried out a protracted campaign to stage manage her return and took a significant role in the political uproar that followed, having congratulated her "upon her triumph over a wicked conspiracy against her honour and her life".[10] However, the diarist, Charles Greville noted acerbically in his diary on 7 June 1820:[14]

The Queen arrived in London yesterday at seven o’clock… She travelled in an open landau, Alderman Wood sitting by her side and Lady Anne Hamilton and another woman opposite. Everybody was disgusted at the vulgarity of Wood in sitting in the place of honour, while the Duke of Hamilton’s sister was sitting backwards in the carriage.

Wood's notoriety was such that he was the subject, along with the Queen and her Italian lover, Bartolomeo Pergami, of many lampoons. The artist and cartoonist, Theodore Lane created a series of scurrilous but technically brilliant images of the trio. Wood appeared in one of them as 'The Man of the Woods', embracing Caroline as a large 'Cat-o'-Mountain'. In 'Moments of Pleasure', Wood is seen dancing for the grotesquely dressed, overweight Queen.

In 1821, Matthew Wood was one of "seven wise men" that John Cartwright proposed to Jeremy Bentham act as "Guardians of Constitutional Reform", their reports and observations to concern "the entire Democracy or Commons of the United Kingdom". In addition to Bentham and himself, the other names Cartwright proposed were Sir Francis Burdett, Rev. William Draper; George Ensor, Rev. Richard Hayes and Robert Williams. [15]

The Jemmy Wood inheritance case, 1830's

Wood's radicalism belied his propensity for improving his and his family's lot. In 1836 the 'Gloucester millionaire', banker James 'Jemmy' Wood, and one of the richest men in the country, died. It emerged that Alderman Wood was not only an executor of the will but also one of the heirs. Matthew Wood was actually no relation to the millionaire despite their shared surname. Jemmy Wood's sister was an admirer of Queen Caroline and had soon also become a fan of the Alderman, to the extent of leaving property to him when she died. Gaining more knowledge of the Gloucester Woods by living in his newly acquired property, the radical MP came to know the old banker and his legendary fortune. Favours were exchanged. In 1833, Jemmy gave the Alderman rent-free use of Hatherley House which his bank had acquired through a bankruptcy. Wood in turn allowed Jemmy to send all his mail under parliamentary franked cover. Soon, the Alderman was privately campaigning for a baronetcy not only for himself, but also for the old millionaire. It was at this time that he became one of Jemmy's executors and beneficiaries.

The story of the will is a very complex one, but it involved leaving the entire estate valued at nearly £1,000,000, to Alderman Wood and three other executors. Eventually, after a long court case against Wood and the other three executor-beneficiaries, on 20 Feb 1839 Judge Jenner in an extremely long and detailed verdict at the Arches Prerogative Court, London, 'decided that the terms were made by conspiracy and fraud, and ordered that the whole of the immense property should be divided amongst two relations'. And yet, within a couple of years, this verdict was overturned on appeal by Lord Lyndhurst, and the four men (or family in the case of John Chadborn, Jemmy's lawyer, who had hanged himself in the interim) who had been accused of fraud were awarded what money and property was left after court costs were allowed for. The inheritance formed the basis of the Wood family fortunes (now the Page Woods) and also that of John Chadborn's daughter's family, the Prices.

Despite the scandal of the will, the new Queen Victoria made Wood a baronet Baronet in her accession year of 1837, of Hatherley House in Gloucestershire,[2][16] the name of his country seat.[3]

Marriage and children

On 5 November 1795 Wood married Maria Page, the daughter of John Page of Woodbridge in Suffolk,[3] by whom he had six children:

  1. John-Page Wood (1796–1866), who became a Church of England vicar in Essex[3] His daughter Katharine Wood (1846–1921) was better known by her married name of Katharine O'Shea.[17] Popularly known as Kitty O'Shea, her relationship with the Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell led to a political scandal which caused his downfall. John's son Evelyn Wood (1838–1919) was a Field Marshal and a recipient of the Victoria Cross.
  2. Maria-Elizabeth Wood (born 1798)
  3. Catharine Wood (born 1799)
  4. William Wood, 1st Baron Hatherley (1801–1881), a barrister and Liberal MP who served as Lord Chancellor from 1868 to 1872
  5. Western Wood (1804–1863), MP for the City of London 1861–63
  6. Henry-Wright Wood (born 1806), died an infant

References
  1. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.801; Pole, Sir William (d.1635), Collections Towards a Description of the County of Devon, Sir John-William de la Pole (ed.), London, 1791, p.508)
  2. Leigh Rayment's list of baronets – Baronetcies beginning with "P" (part 1)
  3. Collen, G. W. (1840). Debrett's baronetage of England. revised, corrected and continued by G.W. Collen. Vol. 3. London. p. 593.
  4. "Manor House Wedding Venue Devon".
  5. Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, pp.194-5
  6. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895; quartering illustrated in: Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p.875
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 June 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "No. 17259". The London Gazette. 14 June 1817. p. 1339.
  9. "Lord Mayors of The City of London From 1189" (PDF). City of London Corporation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 December 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2010.
  10. "WOOD, Matthew (1768-1843), of 77 South Audley Street, Mdx. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 24 February 2023.
  11. Stooks Smith, Henry. (1973) [1844-1850]. Craig, F. W. S. (ed.). The Parliaments of England (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 211–2. ISBN 0-900178-13-2.
  12. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 4. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
  13. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 3)
  14. Charles C. F. Greville, A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, volume I (London, Longmans Green & Co, 1874), at page 28
  15. Bentham, Jeremy (1843). The Works of Jeremy Bentham: Memoirs of Bentham. London: W. Tait. pp. 522–523.
  16. "No. 19558". The London Gazette. 14 November 1837. p. 2921.
  17. Fargnoli, A. Nicholas; Gillespie, Michael Patrick (2006). Critical companion to James Joyce: a literary reference to his life and work. New York: Facts on File, Inc. ISBN 9781438108483.
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