Constantine John Phipps (1744 - 1792)

Born 19 May 1744 in Whitby, Yorkshire, England

Ancestors

Died 10 Oct 1792 at age 48 in Liège, Belgium

Biography

Constantine Phipps was a member of the aristocracy in England.

Constantine John Phipps was born on 30 May 1744. He is the son of Constantine Phipps, 1st Lord Mulgrave of New Ross (Irish Peerage), and Lepell Hervey. ^[1][2]

Navy Service

He entered the Navy in in 1757 as a "boy". In 1760, as Midshipman, he saw service on board the HMS Dragon, 74 guns, with his uncle Augustus John Hervey (afterwards 3rd earl of Bristol).^[3] He served at Martinique and St. Lucia with service rewarded by promotion to Lieutenant, 17 March 1762.^[4] Still on Dragon, he took part in the reduction of Havana.

On 24 Nov 1763 he was promoted to the command of the HMS Diligence, an eight-gun sloop, and on 20 June 1765 was posted to HMS Terpsichore, a 24 gun sixth rate recently captured from the French. In 1767 he commanded the HMS Boreas, a 28 gun sixth rate.

Parliament

In the general election of 1768 he was returned to the House of Commons as member for Lincoln, and from the first gained prominence by his opposition to the popular party.^[5]

In 1777 he was elected member of parliament for Huntingdon, and was also appointed one of the lords of the admiralty.

Exploration

In 1773 he commanded HMS Racehorse, an 18-gun ship-rigged (i.e. three-masted) sloop, which, in company with HMS Carcass, was fitted out to attempt the discovery of a northern route to India. The expedition sailed to the north of Spitsbergen, and, finding the sea absolutely blocked with ice, returned without result. The voyage is now principally remembered from the fact that Nelson, later Admiral, was a midshipman on board the Carcass.^[6]

During the voyage Phipps was the first European to describe the polar bear and the ivory gull, which were included in his A Voyage towards the North Pole undertaken ... 1773 (1774). Notably, the early descriptions of the characteristics of the polar bear in particular can be found in his voyage log book entries, dated 12 May 1773, and now kept in the British Library archives.

Family

On the death of his father, on 13 Sep 1775, Phipps succeeded as second Baron Mulgrave (of New Ross, Peerage of Ireland).

In 1791 ill-health compelled Phipps to resign both from Parliament and active service in the Royal Navy.^[7] On 16 June 1790 he was created a peer of Great Britain as Baron Mulgrave (York, England), Peerage of Great Britain and entered the House of Lords.

He died at Liege on 10 Oct 1792. A bust portrait of Mulgrave, painted by Ozias Humphrey, is in Greenwich Hospital.^[8]

He married, in 1787, Anne Elizabeth Cholmeley, youngest daughter of Nathaniel Cholmeley of Howsham in Yorkshire. She died the following year in giving birth to a daughter; and Mulgrave dying without male heirs, the English peerage became extinct. The Irish barony descended to his brother Henry Phipps.^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ The official baronage of England; Vol 2, Doyle, page 544 - Mulgrave
2. ↑ Dictionary of national biography; Ed 1; Volume 45; Sir Stephen Leslie; page 231
3. ↑ Dictionary of national biography; Ed 1; Volume 45; Sir Stephen Leslie; page 231
4. ↑ The official baronage of England; Vol 2, Doyle, page 544 - Mulgrave
5. ↑ Dictionary of national biography; Ed 1; Volume 45; Sir Stephen Leslie; page 231
6. ↑ Dictionary of national biography; Ed 1; Volume 45; Sir Stephen Leslie; page 231
7. ↑ Dictionary of national biography; Ed 1; Volume 45; Sir Stephen Leslie; page 231
8. ↑ Dictionary of national biography; Ed 1; Volume 45; Sir Stephen Leslie; page 231
9. ↑ Dictionary of national biography; Ed 1; Volume 45; Sir Stephen Leslie; page 231

• The official baronage of England, showing the succession, dignities, and offices of every peer from 1066 to 1885, with sixteen hundred illustrations; Vol 2, Doyle; 1886, archive.org
• Dictionary of national biography; Ed 1; Volume 45; Sir Stephen Leslie. archive.org
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_Phipps,_2nd_Baron_Mulgrave
• The Peerage.com
• http://www.stirnet.com/genie/data/british/mm4fz/murray11.php
• The Heraldry of the Murrays, G. Harvey Johnston FSA Scot, W&A.K. Johnston, Ltd., Edinburgh and London, MCMX, p. 92
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142894140/constantine-john-phipps: accessed 25 July 2023), memorial page for Constantine John Phipps (19 May 1744–10 Oct 1792), Find a Grave Memorial ID 142894140, citing St Oswald Churchyard, Lythe, Scarborough Borough, North Yorkshire, England; Maintained by Find a Grave.