Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon (28 November 1661 – 31 March 1723), styled Viscount Cornbury between 1674 and 1709, was Governor of New York and New Jersey between 1701 and 1708, and is perhaps best known for the claims of his cross-dressing while in office.
Contents
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Career 1
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Reputation 2
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New York Governor 3
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In fiction 4
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See also 5
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References 6
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External links 7
Career
Born The Hon. Edward Hyde, the only child of Page of Honour to King James II at his Coronation. He was one of the first commanders to desert the King in 1688, taking with him as many troops as he could.
Also in 1688, Lord Cornbury married, in a clandestine ceremony, Katherine O'Brien, daughter of Henry, Lord Ibrackan, eldest son of the 7th Earl of Thomond, who succeeded her mother in 1702 as 8th Baroness Clifton. Lady Cornbury died in New York on 11 August 1706 and is buried at Trinity Church, New York.
He became Governor of New York and New Jersey from 1701 to 1708, in which position he earned a very foul repute. It is said that his character and conduct were equally abhorred in both hemispheres. He was imprisoned for debt at the time of his father's death, when he succeeded as 3rd Earl of Clarendon. He was Envoy Extraordinary to Hanover in 1714.
Lord Clarendon died at Chelsea, in obscurity and debt, and was buried on 5 April 1723 in Westminster Abbey. Although his eldest son, Edward, Viscount Cornbury, predeceased him without children (the Earldom passing on his death to his cousin, the 2nd Earl of Rochester), by his daughter Theodosia, who married John Bligh (later the 1st Earl of Darnley), he is ancestor of many alive today, including actor Cary Elwes, and Sarah, Duchess of York.
Reputation
The purported portrait of Lord Cornbury from the New York Historical Society
Cornbury came to be regarded in the historical literature as a moral profligate, sunk in corruption: possibly the worst governor Britain ever appointed to an American colony. The early accounts claim he took bribes and plundered the public treasury. Nineteenth century historian [1]
Cornbury is reported to have opened the 1702 New York Assembly clad in a hooped gown and an elaborate headdress and carrying a fan, imitative of the style of Queen Anne. When his choice of clothing was questioned, he replied, "You are all very stupid people not to see the propriety of it all. In this place and occasion, I represent a woman (the Queen), and in all respects I ought to represent her as faithfully as I can." It is also said that in August 1707, when his wife Lady Cornbury died, His High Mightiness (as he preferred to be called) attended the funeral dressed as a woman. It was shortly after this that mounting complaints from colonists prompted the Queen to remove Cornbury from office.[2]
In 2000 Patricia U. Bonomi re-examined these assertions and found them to be questionable and based on very little evidence. Three colonials, all members of a faction opposed to Cornbury, wrote four letters between 1707 and 1709 discussing a rumour that Lord Cornbury wore women's clothes. There are also some early documents that might be cited to support charges of having taken bribes or misappropriated government funds, but there the contemporary evidence ends.[3]
A portrait possibly of Lord Cornbury dressed in women's clothes which hangs in the New York Historical Society. Philip Davenport-Hines, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in England, thinks the portrait accurately depicts Cornbury and pronounced Bonomi's findings inconclusive.[4]
New York Governor
In the interim after Cornbury's time as Governor of New York, there were several acting governors:
In 1710, General Robert Hunter arrived to fill the post.
In fiction
Cornbury is the lead character in the play Cornbury: The Queen's Governor. First presented as a staged reading at The Public Theater on 12 April 1976, the play was written by William M. Hoffman and Anthony Holland. Joseph Papp produced and Holland directed, with Joseph Maher in the role of Cornbury.[5] The play was revived in 2009 at the Hudson Guild Theater under the direction of Tim Cusack. David Greenspan played Cornbury.[6]
He also makes appearances in Edward Rutherfurd's historical saga novel New York and in Robert McCammon's "Matthew Corbett" series of novels.
See also
References
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^ Ross, Shelley, Fall From Grace, Random House, 1988. P.4. ISBN 0-517-19830-4.
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^ Fall From Grace, P.4-7
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^ Bonomi, Patricia U. Lord Cornbury Scandal: The Politics of Reputation in British America, The University of North Carolina Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8078-4869-7.
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^ Armstrong, Kiley, Historical Society Ponders Man in Dress. Associated Press, 31 May. 1990.
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^ Hoffman, William M. (ed) (1979). Gay Plays: The First Collection. New York, New York: Avon Books. pp. 413–14.
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^ Isherwood, Charles (2009-01-30). "The Man Who Would Be Queen". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
External links
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Did New York once have a transvestite governor?
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Royal Berkshire History: Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon
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