Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
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10th Earl acknowledges Reebkomp
Letters (Horace Walpole and Lady Caroline Fox)
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In 1762, Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke [born July 1734] was one of the richest and best-connected men in England.
After serving with the Army in Germany,
Henry returned to England in Jan 1762.
He immediately met and fell for
Kitty Hunter
[born 24 Apr 1740].
She was age 21. He was age 27.
She was
daughter of Thomas Orby Hunter, Lord of the Admiralty.
Henry and Kitty went to a great ball on Wed 17 Feb 1762
at "Lord Middleton's"
(presumably 3rd Baron Middleton).
They danced together.
They eloped together the next day,
Thur 18 Feb 1762.
Him disguising himself as a sailor, and leaving a note for his wife.
[Gentleman's Magazine, March 1762]
says that in his note to his wife he told her he had never been able
"to bring himself to love her as she deserved;
that Miss [Hunter]
was the only person for whom he had ever felt a real affection,
and that with her therefore he had determined to spend the rest of his days."
They went
to the Low Countries.
But soon (before 30 Apr 1762) he was recalled to the Army in Germany.
Kitty was already pregnant and gave birth in Nov 1762
to a son,
Augustus Reebkomp (later Montgomery).
The child's surname is "Herbert" at baptism, but they then settled on "Reebkomp" or "Repkombe", anagrams of "Pembroke".
Augustus was baptised in Holland
in Dec 1762.
At some point Kitty returned to England.
Henry returned to England in Feb 1763 and was reconciled to his wife in Mar 1763.
(Henry and his wife had another child in 1773.
Though he had more affairs and in 1788 they separated for good.)
About as well-documented an illegitimacy as you could imagine:
The parentage of Augustus Reebkomp is
about as well-documented an illegitimacy as you could imagine,
and about as well-accepted by the legitimate family.
The 10th Earl supported Reebkomp and sent him to Eton in 1767 to 1771.
Even Lady Pembroke generously welcomed him into the family
(though she blocked his adoption of the surname Herbert).
The next generation too was close to
Reebkomp and his family.
He was liked especially by his half-brother
George (the future 11th Earl),
who had no other brother.
George in a letter to his father of 3 Apr 1787 said:
"rejoice at his being a thorough worthy and pleasant being,
which he most undoubtedly is."
[PP, vol.2, p.346]
The 11th Earl, and later his widow, continued to support Reebkomp's children and grandchildren into the 19th century.
See
note of introduction
from the
11th Earl's widow
for Reebkomp's grandson
William Henry Gibbon
in 1848.
Money came out of the Herbert family for Reebkomp's family for almost a full hundred years,
until the death of the 11th Earl's widow
in 1856.
A letter after her death in 1856 tells another grandson of Reebkomp,
Arthur Augustus Gibbon,
that the 11th Earl's widow
"always took a kind interest in you."
A letter shows the Gibbons were still in touch with
Emma Herbert
(11th Earl's dau)
in 1857.
Cecilia Markham, who married into the illegitimate family in 1827, became good friends with Elizabeth à Court-Repington, who married into the legitimate family in 1846, and presumably they stayed friends until the former died in 1879, 117 years after the elopement.
Entry for Reebkomp on
pp.446-447
of
[Eton College register, 1753-1790].
He went there in 1767-1771.
Quite something for an illegitimate child to be sent to Eton.
In the 1793 codicil to his will, the 10th Earl explicitly says that Augustus is his son.
Reebkomp's will
mentions
a grant of a coat of arms from the
Herald's Office
"by which my father the Earl of Pembroke acknowledges me as his son".
This has Kitty talking to "her mother" at the ball.
Presumably this is
her stepmother.
This says they planned to elope the night of the ball, but her mother
whether knowingly or unknowingly foiled their plots.
So they came up with a new plan for the next day.
She went out in her chair,
met the Earl, and eloped,
leaving a note for her father.
Notes to the above.
Letter by Horace Walpole on 25 Feb 1762.
From
pp.490-491
of same volume.
Notes to the above.
Letter by Horace Walpole on 25 Feb 1762.
From
pp.491-492
of
same volume.
He passes on a quip that apparently someone else made:
"As Pembroke a horseman by most is accounted,
'Tis not strange that his lordship a Hunter has mounted."
Letter by
Lady Caroline Fox,
27 Feb 1762.
From p.318
of
vol.1
of
Correspondence of Emily Duchess of Leinster.
Notes to the above.
Letter by
Lady Caroline Fox, 9 Mar 1762.
From p.321
of same volume.
Says Henry has encouraged his wife to join them.
"Miss H. was perfectly innocent", he implausibly tells her.
(In reality, she is already pregnant.)
Letter by Horace Walpole on 22 Mar 1762.
From
pp.496-497
of the Walpole
volume above.
He says they were brought back, but her father would not receive her, so they left again.
Letter by Horace Walpole on 13 Apr 1762.
From
p.500
of
same volume.
Letter by Horace Walpole on 30 Apr 1762.
From
p.504
of
same volume.
Letter by Horace Walpole on 29 Mar 1763.
From
p.59
of
Vol.4
of 1906 edn
of
The letters of Horace Walpole.
Notes to the above.
"As Pembroke a horseman by most is accounted,
'Tis not strange that his lordship a Hunter has mounted."
- A quip on the elopement
made by some wit.
Reported by Horace Walpole
in his letter of 25 Feb 1762.
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