Was King George III’s Secret Son a Yorkshireman?

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Was King George III’s Secret Son a YorkshiremanWas King George III’s Secret Son a Yorkshireman (2)

By Rosalind Freeborn

Perhaps, like me, you’ve been to Kirby Misperton in North Yorkshire and enjoyed a day at Flamingo Land? But did you visit the Mansion, the large Hall in the centre of the estate? These days it’s a place to have tea, pause, take stock and watch children enjoy the petting zoo. However, what you might not know is that Kirby Misperton Hall was once the home of the secret son of King George III. It was also the home of my grandmother and she always told us that the family had a connection with the royal family.

So, I decided to investigate her claim and what a story emerged! The result of my research is an historical novel: Prince George and Master Frederick. It tells the intriguing story of Frederick Blomberg, who became the owner of Kirby Misperton estate in the mid 1800s thanks to the generosity of George, the Prince Regent and future King George IV.

Kirby Misperton Hall

“Inheritance”

But what was a Georgian king’s connection with an estate in north Yorkshire, you may ask? Well, my researches threw up a strange ghost story which started circulating in 1764. It told of a soldier in the Caribbean who had appeared to his commanding officer with a message from beyond the grave. The apparition of Major William Blomberg entered the barracks bedroom of a colonel in Dominica and, in a grave voice, made a heartfelt request. On their return to England, the ghostly soldier bade his comrades to seek out the child of his secret marriage and, on finding the orphan child, to inform the King, George III.

The soldiers duly returned to England, visited the address given by the ghost and found a four-year-old orphan boy, Frederick Blomberg. They were also shown documents, kept in a red Morocco box, pertaining to the child’s Blomberg inheritance. This was the valuable estate at Kirby Misperton.

King George III and Queen Charlotte were told of the boy’s plight and decided to adopt him as a playmate for their then three-year-old eldest child, Prince George, the future regent and King George IV. At not quite four years old, Frederick was bundled into a carriage with a woman he did not know and taken to the royal household. He was brought up like a prince at Richmond Palace, Kew Palace and Windsor Castle and became a close friend of Prince George. But what was the secret connection between the King and this child?

The author’s grandmother, who used to live at Kirby Misterton

“Orphan”

Many historical references to Frederick mention his striking resemblance to the king and the royal children. This led people to surmise that he was, in fact, the illegitimate firstborn son of the King. My grandmother’s story was that Frederick was the result of a romance with a farmer’s daughter before the King’s marriage to Queen Charlotte. We know that Frederick’s mother, Melissa Laing married Major Blomberg in April 1761 about four months before he was born. He was baptised in Rochester. Whatever the truth of Frederick’s birth, once he had become an orphan the royal couple generously absorbed the child into their own family.

Years passed and Frederick grew up and was educated with the royal children. However, after the King and Queen had produced fifteen children the nursery was crowded. Frederick was then adopted by his governess, Mrs Henrietta Cotesworth who embarked upon an expensive legal battle to prove his claim to the Blomberg inheritance of Kirby Misperton. The legal battle failed, bankrupting her in the process, and Frederick had to accept that he would never inherit the estate.”

Kirby Misperton Hall today

“Study divinity”

Kirby Misperton had come into the Blomberg family through marriage. In the late 1600s the estate had been gifted by King Charles II to a physician named Doctor Dickenson in gratitude for his successful medical treatments. His daughter, Elizabeth married a Baron Blomberg and thus the property descended through the Blomberg family until it came into the possession of a clergyman named Reverend William Blomberg and his wife, Ursula, who lived at Kirby Misperton in the late 1700s. However, Frederick believed that he should be the legal inheritor, yet his claim was hard to prove. There’s a memorial in St Lawrence’s church to Ursula Blomberg and her son, William, who died in his 30s.

When Frederick was sixteen, the King paid for him to go to Cambridge to study divinity and he was then ordained. The King granted him three very valuable livings in Somerset but Frederick was still unable to acquire his Yorkshire inheritance.

Then, in 1810, when King George III’s madness was declared to be irreversible by his doctors, Parliament passed a bill appointing Prince George, the Prince of Wales, as regent. With his new powers, the Prince Regent was finally able to grant Frederick Blomberg the Kirby Misperton estate and also gave him the title of Baron. Finally Frederick, now Baron Blomberg, acquired the inheritance his ghostly father had been so anxious for him to receive.

A cutting from the Leeds Mercury

“Hectic”

Frederick, with his wife Maria and niece Anna moved into Kirby Misperton Hall turning it into a comfortable home. An able musician and renowned cellist and violinist, Frederick held musical soirees and frequently attended concerts in Harrogate. Frederick famously suffered from gout and newspapers of the mid- 1800s frequently trumpeted Baron Blomberg of Kirby Misperton as an enthusiastic consumer of James’s Powders which claimed to cure the condition.

In gratitude to King George III and the Prince Regent Frederick erected an obelisk on the property. He wrote his thanks to both kings, in Latin, on a plaque, for restoring the estate to his ownership. The obelisk is still there, close to one of the hectic rollercoaster rides. The plaque is now kept safely in the offices of Flamingo Land in the Rectory next door to the Hall.

The obelisk

“Returned home”

So, when embarking on this quest into family history I had no idea it was going to throw up such interesting royal connections. My grandmother never really knew the details, she simply asserted that King George III had been on his travels as a young man, met the beautiful daughter of a farmer and the baby was hushed up with a marriage of convenience.

My grandmother’s name was Verna Twentyman. Her father, James Robert Twentyman bought the Hall and the Kirby Misperton estate in the late 1890s. He had made a fortune in China. He was an engineer and ship builder who settled in Shanghai and helped build the docks there. He married Ada Minns from County Durham and they had five children, all born in China. When they returned home to England the family settled in Kirby Misperton and remained there until 1928, when James Robert Twentyman died.

There’s a large family plot in the ‘new’ graveyard in Kirby Misperton and on the wall of the church of St Lawrence is a war memorial which includes the names of his eldest son, Denzil and son-in-law, Wilfred Halliwell.

A portrait of Frederick

“Mysterious”

However, there’s a fascinating post-script to this story. Last year a portrait of Frederick Blomberg, aged seven, was bought by King Charles III for the Royal Collection. In 1769 Queen Charlotte commissioned the court artist, Hugh Douglas Hamilton, to make portraits of all her children, including Princes George, Frederick William and Edward – and also Frederick Blomberg, her adopted son.

When it came up for auction, the picture’s provenance explained that it had been owned by James Robert Twentyman of Kirby Misperton. I remember my grandmother mentioning the name Blomberg all those years ago when I talked to her about the royal connection but it made no sense at the time. Growing up at the Hall she would have been familiar with the portrait of Frederick Blomberg hanging on the wall in her childhood home, but she never knew his true relationship to the royal family.

I’m delighted to have found some of the answers to the mysterious and intriguing story of Frederick Blomberg, and have included them in my novel, Prince George and Master Frederick. I hope you enjoy it!

‘Prince George and Master Frederick’ by Rosalind Freeborn is published by Alliance Publishing Press
You can order a signed copy directly from the author’s website rosalind-freeborn.com or from Amazon. It will also be available on Kindle and as an audio book.

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