The Hon. Henry Berkeley Craven, a Regency Corinthian

Hon Henry Berkeley Craven, miniature on ivory by George Sanders.

Henry Augustus Berkeley Craven was Elizabeth Craven's sixth child, and second son. Born in December 1776, he was always known as Berkeley, a name chosen in honour of his mother's family. 

He is to be seen aged three in this Berkeley-Granard group portrait at Berkeley Castle, where he is the merry little boy being carried on his mother's back. This image of him as a fun-loving imp matches everything we know about him throughout most of his life. A high-spirited, pleasure-loving sportsman and tearaway, he was daring, and perhaps a little inclined to show off. 

    Berkeley was sent to Eton and grew up to be tall and extremely handsome, the most robust of his brothers. He was fifteen when his father died. When he left school, his mother wanted to send him to university but her brother Frederick, who had been appointed one of his guardians by Lord Craven, refused. [1] So in 1794, aged only 17, young Berkeley entered the army as an infantry Captain and was sent to fight against the French. It was the start of a successful military career.

    As a second son, Berkeley did not do too badly in his father's will in 1791. He was left an income of £300 p.a. and a lump sum of £5,000 which he seems to have used to buy an estate called Prestbury Park in Gloucestershire, near Berkeley Castle. He was definitely in possession of this estate, which had a moated manor house, until 1817. [2] This and his army pay should have been enough to ensure he could live as a gentleman.

    However, when he started to mix in Regency society he made friends in the highest rank of life, and this would ultimately be his undoing. A younger son could never compete with these wealthy noblemen. The sports-mad Earl of Sefton was his brother-in-law and frequent companion. He was friends with the Duke of York, brother of the Prince of Wales, and such leaders of fashionable society as  the witty Lord Alvanley, and the dandies Beau Brummell and Thomas Raikes. 

    Berkeley typified the Regency ideal of the "Corinthian", that is to say a gentleman who was wild about sports, and excelled at them. Bartleby’s defines a Corinthian as “A gentleman sportsman who rides his own horses on the turf, or sails his own yacht. A member of the pugilistic club, Bond Street, London”. The Pugilistic Club was formed in 1814 as the meeting-place of the aristocratic sporting element, often called “The Fancy.” [3]

    When not on active service in the army, Berkeley rode to hounds, drove his own carriage with style and recklessness, was a good shot with a pistol, and took a passionate interest in the "turf" - as horse-racing was called.

    There was hardly any Racing Calendar from 1799 onwards in which Berkeley Craven's name did not figure. He was a member of the Jockey Club, owned horses and entered them for the biggest events of the racing year, with a jockey wearing his colours - a white waistcoat with red cap. [4]

    He was also keen on boxing - which was popular though actually illegal. In 1812, Berkeley and his elder brother William, Lord Craven were present at a boxing match in Surrey, where the wagers were twenty-five guineas on each side. Racing and boxing were both inseparable from gambling.  [5]

    A Corinthian belonged to the best London clubs, and Berkeley belonged to Brookes, in Pall Mall, the club favoured by Whigs, to which the Prince of Wales belonged. There, too, there was a gaming table and so the downward path began. He started to run up debts, which would eventually mean he had to leave England.

    Berkeley and his brothers all enjoyed the theatre, a passion they got from their mother, and Berkeley acted in several of his mother's productions at Benham and Brandenburgh House, excelling in comic roles. In The Beggar's Opera, he took the role of MacHeath, the highwayman, a role in which his splendid height and figure were an advantage.

    By the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Berkeley had risen to the rank of Major-General. When the peace came, he enjoyed travelling to Paris partly for pleasure and partly to escape his creditors. Here he was seen in 1818 and described in a not altogether flattering way by the diarist Tom Moore.

“Party at dinner, Lord Alvanley, Berkeley Craven, Lady Affleck, Sharpe, and Rogers. The conversation to-day of rather a commoner turn than usual, on account of these slang bucks, but still very agreeable. Alvanley just hits that difficult line between the gentleman and the jolly fellow, and mixes their shades together very pleasantly; but Craven goes further. Though clever in his way, he is too decidedly flash in his tones, words, manner, everything. When one meets him in such company, one wonders how the devil he got there.” [6]

    In the following years, Berkeley spent time with his mother in Naples, and settled in Calais along with other debt exiles such as Beau Brummell. His sister Georgiana wrote in her diary in 1823 that he was very comfortable there. He still made frequent visits to Paris. [7]    From Naples he and Keppel sent Georgiana regular letters informing her of their mother's state of health, because Georgiana kept until her death the promise she had once made to her father that she would not correspond with her mother. [8]

    When she died in 1828, Elizabeth Craven did not leave Berkeley any money in her will. She left everything to Keppel, because  although she loved Berkeley dearly, she was well aware of his gambling addiction. It may even be that anything she left him would have been seized by creditors immediately. 

    Shortly after her death, he married Marie Clarisse Tribhault (sometimes spelled Tribhoult), who seems to have been a French actress. There was a noted actress in the Opéra Comique in 1822 called Marie Thibault. Admired for her beauty and talent, she probably became Berkeley's mistress before marrying him. There are no references to her performing after 1829 - the year of his marriage. We know that she lived until 1865, so she was probably much younger than him. Berkeley's tastes and temperament in this respect were very like those of his elder brother William, who also married an actress. The miniature portrait of him, shown above, depicts him in a romantic pose, dressed in a robe with his hand on his heart. It was probably painted to give to a beloved.

       Berkeley lived for another eight years after his mother's death and was able to return to England by arrangement of his creditors. In 1836, he was living in Connaught Terrace, London. There he died tragically by his own hand, after a final gambling disaster at the Epsom races in May. He shot himself through the head.

In Connaught-terrace, Edgware-road aged 60, the Hon. Henry Augustus Berkeley Craven, a retired Maj. Gen. in the army; uncle to the Earl of Craven. He was the second son of William 6th Lord and lst Earl of Craven by Lady Elizabeth Berkeley, afterwards Margravine of Anspach. He was appointed Captain of an independent company of foot 1794, placed on half-pay 1795, brevet Major 1803, Lieut.-Col. 1810, extra Aid-de-Camp to the King and Colonel 1814, and Major General 1825. It appears that he had been a considerable loser at the Epsom races which, it is supposed produced such an effect upon his mind as to induce him to commit suicide by shooting himself through the head. He married Dec. 26 1829, Mademoiselle Marie Clarisse Tribhault.

His obituary on May 20th said:-On the 21st of May, an inquest was held at the Mitre Tavern, Edgeware Road, on the body of the Hon Henry Augustus Berkeley Craven, who shot himself at his residence in Connaught Terrace, on Thursday night after his return from Epsom. It appeared from the evidence, that the unfortunate gentleman had retired to bed at an early hour, much depressed in spirits, and was found the following morning in the back parlour, dead, with a pistol in his hand, which he had discharged into his mouth. Several letters addressed to different friends, and evidently written by him immediately before committing this fatal act, were found on his writing table; their contents however did not appear in the evidence.

It was proved that the deceased had exhibited considerable excitement at Epsom races on the day the Derby was run for; being heard to exclaim more than once during that race, "Jersey wins!" But no evidence was given that the melancholy event was caused by losses on the race and the jury returned their verdict "temporary mental derangement". The real cause, however, of this deplorable event, was the losses sustained by the unhappy gentleman in backing the field against Lord Jersey's Bay Middleton, for the Derby; and which it is believed would have made him a defaulter to the extent of nearly £8,000 on the 24th, the settling day at Tattersall's; a position his too sensitive feeling of honour made him unable to face. Mr Berkeley Craven's melancholy fate was deeply deplored by all who knew him, whether as a man or a sportsman; in which latter capacity he had ever evinced the strictest integrity. He was in his 60th year, was uncle to the present Lord Craven, and a member of the Jockey Club.

It was a sad end for the little boy who had once been that fun-loving imp on his mother's back. 

There is one happy postscript to Berkeley's story. His estate, Prestbury Park in Gloucestershire, was turned into a horse-racing course, where the world-famous Cheltenham Races are now held every year. This could hardly be more appropriate.

1. Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach 2:92.
2. The Gentleman's Magazine 1817 - Volume 121 - p. 410.
Joseph Nightingale,  English topography: or, A series of historical and statistical Descriptions, 1816.
3. https://shannondonnelly.com/2011/08/18/regency-corinthians-dandies-rakes-and-young-blades/
Lords Alvanley and Sefton were other examples of dandies who also had sporting interests.
William Arderne, Baron Alvanley, was famous for his wit, his dinner parties, his dress and his eccentricities. He insisted that an apricot tart be on the sideboard, no matter the time of year, after he was served a cold one that he liked. He also put out his candle by throwing it across the room—with his valet wisely remained alert in case it should start a fire and have to be put out. A hard rider to hounds, Alvanley was one of the best liked men of his set.
Lord Sefton, William Philip Molyneux, was a cousin to Petersham. Society wits dubbed him “Lord Dashalong” for his driving style, and his matched bays were quite famous. He rode in steeplechases and was so fond of coursing greyhounds against each other as a sport that he devoted part of his estate to raising rabbits for the chase.
4. Racing Calendar 1799 - Page ix Honourable Thomas Conolly Right Honourable Richard Fitzpatrick Honourable William Carr Honourable Berkeley Craven Honourable Arthur Duffe Honourable Champion Dymoke Honourable William Edwardes Honourable George Germaine Honourable W...
Pick's annual racing calendar,1812 [With] Appendix - Volume 33 - Page 8 ·
5. Pancratia, or a history of Pugilism, 1812.
6.Thomas Moore, Memoirs, Journal and Correspondence. Edited by Lord John Russell · 1860. p. 184 November 1818 Paris.
7. Diary of Georgiana Craven July 1823 MS. La Budde Special Collection.
8. Diary of Georgiana Craven January 1826. "Thursday 5 very cold a little snow which turned to a Cold Rain & very windy Berkeley wrote me word Mother was better."
9. The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol V (New Series) MDCCCXXXVI January to June.
James Christie Whyte, History of the British Turf from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, 1840 Vol. II. pp. 367-8
10. Prestbury Park is now the Cheltenham racecourse. https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/prestbury-park