Open Collections

[Bookplate for Denis Le Marchant]

In black ink. No Escutcheon. Ducal coronet, on top of which is an upside down cock leg.

Heraldry

Le Marchant, Denis

Still Image

Sir Denis Le Marchant (3 July 1795 - 30 October 1874) of Chobham Place, in Surrey, was 1st Baronet. The Le Marchant Baronetcy was given to him by Viscount Melbourne, the British Prime Minister from 1834-41, on the 14th of October in 1841 for his years of service to the parliament. Denis Le Marchant studied at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge in his early life but never got a degree. In 1823 he began practicing law at Lincoln's Inn, and published the Proceedings of the House of Lords in the Gardner Peerage Claim. In 1830, Le Marchant became principal secretary to Henry Brougham, the Lord Chancellor. Denis Le Marchant was greatly involved in the Reform Bill debates. He made himself well-known by the reports he wrote for the ministers he served from his daily attendance in the House of Commons. Because of this he was made Clerk of the Crown in chancery in 1834. With the contributions of Lord Althorp, Lord Stanley, Lord Palmerston, and Sir James Graham, Le Marchant edited a celebrated pamphlet that was reedited nine times, entitled "The Reform Ministry and the Reform Parliament." Between 1836 and 1850, Le Marchant was secretary to the Board of Trade, under-secretary for the Home department, and was invovled in parliamentary legislature. He ended his career as chief clerk to the House of Commons, and was asked to retire with much appreciation of the House in 1871. Denis Le Marchant's father was Major-General John Gaspard Le Marchant, who was killed at the Battle of Salamanca in 1812. He wrote a biography about his father in 1841 and edited Horace Walpole's "Memoirs of the Reign of George III" in 1845. He had started to write a "Life of Lord Althorpe," which was finished after he died by his son. The Le Marchants family originated in Guernsey, a British Channel Island, and descended from Peter Le Marchant, the 13th century Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey. Denis Le Marchant is listed on the Roll of Honour as an avid book collector. There is a photograph and a mezzotint of him in the National Portrait Gallery in London. His personal papers are housed in the Parliamentary Archives.
References:
1) Carew Hazlitt, William. A Roll of Honour: A Calendar of the Names of Over 17,000 Men and Women who Throughout the British Isles and in Our Early Colonies Have Collected Mss. and Printed Books from the XIVth to the XIXth Century, with Topographical and Personal Notices and Anecdotes of Many of Them and Their Libraries. Manchester: Ayer Publishing, 1971.
2) Dodd, Charles R. The Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland, Including All the Titled Classes. London: Whittaker & Co., 1846.
3) Hansard Millbanks Systems. "Sir Denis Le Marchant." UK Parliament. http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1871/feb/13/sir-denis-le-marchant (accessed January 8, 2009).
4) The National Archives Accessions to Repositories. "The House of Lords Office: 1995 Accessions." The National Archives.
5) National Portrait Gallery. "Sir Denis Le Marchant, 1st Bt (1795-1874), Politician." http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp82043 (accessed January 8, 2009).
6) The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. "Le Marchant, Sir Denis." http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16422?_fromAuth=1 (accessed January 8, 2009).
7) The Parliamentary Archives. "Papers of Sir Denis Le Marchant, 1st Baronet, MP (1795-1874)." United Kingdom Parliament. http://www.portcullis.parliament.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=RefNo=='LEM'&dsqCmd=Show.tcl (accessed January 8, 2009).
8) Surrey Gardens Trust: Autumn, 1997. "If You Go Down to the Woods Today" The Association of Gardens Trust. http://www.gardenstrusts.org.uk/new/archive/Chobham.html (accessed January 8, 2009).
9) http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/accessions/1995/95returns/95ac61.htm (accessed January 8, 2009).
10) Wikipeadia.org. "Le Marchant Baronets." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Marchant_Baronets (accessed January 8, 2009).

RBSC Bookplates

2009

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