100 things blogging challenge 74
The 100 things blogging challenge.
Okay, I know I had the ODNB Life of the Day very recently, but this one is a must-see:
Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce (1808-1851), traveller and putative lunatic:
In addition to composing poetry in Persian and Urdu, Dyce Sombre kept mistresses: Dominga (d. 1838), a Catholic who bore him three children, Walter George (1832-1833), Laura Celestine (1834-1835), and Penelope (1836-1838); and Hoosna, a Muslim who bore him Josephine Urbana (1834-1835).
....
He returned to Calcutta, settled his affairs in India, including marrying off his mistresses, and left for England. He arrived there on 2 June 1838, and entered high society through the influence of a friend, Stapleton Cotton, Viscount Combermere, and that of Lady Cork. His large fortune made him an eligible bachelor; within months he became engaged to Mary Anne Jervis (1812-1893), third daughter of the second Viscount St Vincent, a Jamaica plantation owner. An accomplished singer, dancer, and composer, she had long associated with the duke of Wellington and Samuel Rogers.
....
In 1841 Dyce Sombre made £3000 available for the election campaign which he and Frederick Villiers undertook in the radical-Liberal interest in Sudbury, Suffolk. They were elected, but on 14 April 1842 parliament controverted their elections for ‘gross, systematic, and extensive bribery’ and (in 1844) disenfranchised Sudbury. During tours of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the continent Dyce Sombre's behaviour appeared increasingly anti-social, including his frequent challenges to duels (never accepted) and violent accusations against his wife of promiscuous adultery with her friends, servants, and father. On 30 March 1843 Dr James Clarke supervised his confinement for lunacy, first in the Clarendon Hotel, then, from April 1843, in Hanover Lodge, Regent's Park.
....
His defenders excused his actions as not lunatic but rather due to his ‘Indian blood’ and upbringing; his accusers argued he knew enough of European manners that he must have been lunatic to act as he had done. He consistently maintained he was European, since each parent had some European blood.
In 1849 Dyce Sombre wrote and published his 592-page Refutation of the Charges of Lunacy in the Court of Chancery, and also a pamphlet, The Memoir, in English, French, and Italian-later found libellous by a French court-excoriating his brother-in-law, Solaroli, and asserting the illegitimacy of his sister Georgiana. Meanwhile, he accomplished his project of visiting every European capital, including St Petersburg and Constantinople, plus Cairo. His obesity, irregular lifestyle, and frequent venereal diseases broke his health. While in London for yet another court-appointed lunacy examination a sore on his foot mortified, and he died on 1 July 1851 at 8a Davies Street, Berkeley Square.
This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/1685245.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
comments.