Raikes Currie: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox MPofficeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Raikes Currie

| honorific-suffix =

| image =

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| constituency_MP = [[Northampton (UK Parliament constituency)|Northampton]]

| parliament =

| majority =

| term_start = 183724 July 1837

| term_end = 27 March 1857

| predecessor = [[Charles Ross (1799–1860)|Charles Ross]]

| successor = [[Charles Gilpin (politician)|Charles Gilpin]]

'''Raikes Currie''' (15 April 1801 – 16 October 1881) was Member of Parliament (MP) for [[Northampton (UK Parliament constituency)|Northampton]] from 1837 to 1857. He was a partner of the bank Curries & Co., which became part of [[Glyn, Mills & Co.]] in 1864, along with his father, Isaac Currie, in [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]], City of London, and had several interests in the newly developing colony of [[South Australia]].<ref>[http://heritagearchives.rbs.com/companies/list/curries-and-co.html Curries & Co, London, 1773-1864]</ref> He restored [[Minley Manor]] and made substantial improvements to the estate, work which was continued by his son and grandson.

The family bank was connected to slavery in the [[British West Indies]] and contributed some ₤9£9,000 (possibly as much as ₤50£50,000) to the creation of [[South Australia]] in 1836. <ref name="Coventry">CJ{{cite journal |journal=Before/Now |volume=1 |issue=1 |doi=10.17613/d8ht-p058 |year=2019 |last1=Coventry, "|first1=C.J. |title=Links in the Chain: British slavery, Victoria and South Australia" Before/Now 1(1) (2019), https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:23672/datastreams/CONTENT/content}}</ref>

His father, Isaac Currie (1760–1843), of Bush Hill, Middlesex, England, was a senior partner of the bank Curries & Co. and the son of William Currie, Distiller and Banker, of Gatton Park, Surrey. InCurrie theand 1830shis Isaacsons Curriewere wasfinancially compensatedconnected ₤15,379to byslavery theand Britishbenefited governmentfrom forcompensation 841awarded slavesto heslaveholders held in Jamaica atupon the timeemancipation of theslavery abolitionin ofthe slavery1830s.<ref>Fernandes, C. ''Island Off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of statecraft in Australian foreign policy'' (Melbourne: Monash University Publishing, 2018), 14.</ref><ref name="Coventry"/>

The Curries belonged to an old Scottish family descended directly from the Curries of [[Duns, Scottish Borders|Duns]], Berwickshire.<ref>Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, section Currie</ref><ref>The Scottish Nation [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/nation/currie.htm Currie]</ref> His mother, Mary Anne Raikes, was the daughter of William Raikes and granddaughter of [[Robert Raikes, anotherthe partnerElder|Robert ofRaikes]], theprinter and newspaper bankproprietor. Her uncles included [[Thomas Raikes]], [[Governor of the Bank of England]] from 1797 to 1799 and personal friend of [[William Wilberforce]],{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} the leader of the campaign against the slave trade; and [[Robert Raikes]], the founder of [[Sunday schools]]. Her brother [[Job Mathew Raikes]]<ref>[https://www.myheritage.com/names/job_raikes# Job Raikes] MyHeritage Ltd. Retrieved 24 December 2020.</ref> was married to Charlotte Bayly, weredaughter herof uncles[[Nathaniel Bayly]], MP,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Papers of Job Matthew Raikes as executor of the estate of Nathaniel Bayly (1726-98), West Indian plantation owner - Archives Hub|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/gb1502-cu/127|access-date=2020-08-30|website=archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Summary of Individual {{!}} Legacies of British Slave-ownership|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/-1055845506|access-date=2020-08-30|website=www.ucl.ac.uk}}</ref> and colonial plantation owner in Jamaica.<ref>[https://www.natwestgroup.com/content/dam/natwestgroup_com/heritage/pdfs-other-than-brown/cu-127.pdf Papers of Nathaniel Bayly, West Indian plantation owner] NatWest Group, 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.</ref>

On 28 June 1825 Raikes Currie married the Hon. Laura Sophia Wodehouse,<ref name=natwestgroup>[https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/people/raikes-currie.html Raikes Currie] NatWest Group, 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.</ref> with whom he had four sons and two daughters.<ref name=ODNB>''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', contribution by John Powell, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48015?docPos=11 Raikes Currie]</ref> She was a daughter of [[John Wodehouse, 1st2nd Baron Wodehouse]] of Kimberley, and Sophia Berkeley. Their four sons were George Wodehouse Currie (18261826–), [[Bertram Wodehouse Currie|Bertram Raikes Wodehouse Currie]] (1827–1896), the Reverend Maynard Wodehouse Currie (1829–1887) and [[Philip Currie, 1st Baron Currie|Philip Henry Wodehouse Currie]] (1834–1908), 1st Baron Currie of Hawley.

Currie's home was at [[Minley Manor]],<ref>Photograph of [https://web.archive.org/web/20080313035336/http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Templates/LargeImageTemplate.aspx?img=%2FNR%2Frdonlyres%2F3FA9173A-1B8C-44C2-AEE2-457EF8F66B29%2F0%2Ffilm4.jpg&alt=Minley%20Manor Minley Manor]</ref><ref>[http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/gallery/showimage.php?i=27330&c=22 Minley Manor] in the snow</ref> near [[Blackwater and Hawley]], in Hampshire, England. He bought the land in 1846 and, as the manor house and the estate needed attention, commissioned [[Henry Clutton]] to design a new house, which was built between 1858 and 1860. During the next three years attention turned to the estate, with the creation of formal gardens around the house and a kitchen garden. The remainder was landscaped as pleasure gardens by F W Meyer,<ref>[http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option,com_parksandgardens/task,person/id,928/Itemid,292/ F W Meyer] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311100950/http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/component/option%2Ccom_parksandgardens/task%2Cperson/id%2C928/Itemid%2C292/ |date=11 March 2012 }}</ref> working with the horticulturists [[Veitch Nurseries|Veitch & Sons]] of Exeter. On Raikes' death, his son Bertram continued the development, employing Messrs Veitch to lay out a Winter Garden and extensions to the pleasure gardens, which included Hawley Lake. Grandson Laurence Currie built a water tower, created a new complex of walled gardens and further extended the ornamental planting and woodland.<ref>Parks and Gardens, UK, [http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/index2.php?option=com_parksandgardens&task=site&id=2301&preview=1&Itemid= Minley Manor] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311101004/http://www.parksandgardens.ac.uk/index2.php?option=com_parksandgardens&task=site&id=2301&preview=1&Itemid= |date=11 March 2012 }}</ref>

Currie was elected as MP for [[Northampton (UK Parliament constituency)|Northampton]] at the [[1837 United Kingdom general election, 1837|1837 general election]], and held the seat until he stood down twenty years later at the [[1857 United Kingdom general election, 1857|1857 general election]].<ref name="craig1832-1885">{{cite book

}}</ref> He was a [[Whig (British political party)|Whig]] and took an active part in debates and committees. He made contributions to debates on banking and currency and South Australia. He was a vigorous supporter of his party and on one occasion made a long speech chastising the leader of his party for crossing the floor and supporting the [[Tory]] party.<ref>[httphttps://hansardapi.millbanksystemsparliament.comuk/historic-hansard/commons/1856/jul/10/appellate-jurisdiction-house-of-lords-1#S3V0143P0_18560710_HOC_93 Hansard 10 July 1856]</ref> In 1847 he served on the committee of the [[British Relief Association]].

In 1849, with [[Richard Cobden]] and [[Lord Dudley Stuart]], Currie offered financial aid and support in Parliament for the stream of Hungarian émigrés who arrived in England in the wake of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1848]] as the forces of repression in Hungary intensified.<ref>[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uF4mi_4zeQ4J:fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/13/9780199211968.pdf+%22raikes+currie%22&cd=92&hl=en&ct=clnk Richard Cobden]{{dead link|date=February 2024|bot=medic}}</ref>

Currie was a founder director of the [[South Australian Company]]<ref name = sac>[http://historysouthaustralia.net/STlist1.htm History of Adelaide]</ref><ref>[http://samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=61&c=1632 Deed of Settlement]</ref> and a director of the [[Van Diemen's Land]] Company. He was also a Member of the Provisional Committee of the South Australian Association and of the South Australia Literary and Scientific Association. He was one of four donors in 1859 of the Silver Bowl from which the annual Adelaide City Council 'toast to Colonel Light' is drunk.<ref name=sac/>

He was a religious man and was Treasurer of the South Australian District Committee of the Incorporated [[Society for the Propagation of the Gospel]] in Foreign Parts.<ref>Colonization: particularly in Southern Australia, with some remarks on small farms and overpopulation, by Sir [[Charles James Napier]] [https://booksarchive.google.comorg/details/colonizationpar00napigoog/page/books?id=nM0NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA263n301 page 263]</ref> As a member of the [[South Australian Church Society]], Currie befriended and supported [[Charles Beaumont Howard]], who had been appointed colonial chaplain to South Australia and was one of the first settlers in Adelaide.

Currie started an important collection of books, manuscripts and works of art, which was considerably enlarged by his son Bertram and grandson Laurence. ". . . this eclectic collection embraced everything from Dresden porcelain, English portraits and clocks, and Italian old masters, to the French Decorative Arts of the eighteenth century".<ref>[http://www.onlinegalleries.com/antiques/d/a-very-fine-ormolu-mounted-green-stained-horn-clock-and-barometer-set/44882 Online Galleries catalogue]</ref>

Some of the paintings, including a portrait by [[Peter Paul Rubens]] of the Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria,<ref>[http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg45/gg45-46159.html The Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria, by Peter Paul Rubens]</ref> are now in the [[National Gallery of Art]], Washington, DC, USA.

The 1881 British Census found him at Minley Manor with his son Philip, his daughter Mary and her husband William Deacon, his niece Laura Wodehouse and 14 servants.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

He died on 16 October 1881 at age 80.<ref name=natwestgroup />

| title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Northampton (UK Parliament constituency)|Northampton]]

| years = [[1837 United Kingdom general election, 1837|1837]] – [[1857 United Kingdom general election, 1857|1857]]

[[Category:MembersWhig of(British thepolitical Parliamentparty) of the United KingdomMPs for English constituencies]]

[[Category:Directors of the South Australian Company Directors]]

[[Category:UK MPs 1837–411837–1841]]

[[Category:UK MPs 1841–471841–1847]]

[[Category:UK MPs 1847–521847–1852]]

[[Category:UK MPs 1852–571852–1857]]

[[Category:Whig19th-century (BritishEnglish political party) MPsbusinesspeople]]