Mystery aficionados are probably familiar with the bizarre story of Lord John Bentinck, the 5th Duke of Portland. Our re-telling will be the basic story. That provides ample quirkiness, but it can also be convoluted and confusing, leading in the end to a strange death, at least two people in mental hospitals as well as a couple of others who probably should have been, and claims of an empty casket, all of which makes Lord John’s story such fertile ground for mystery writers. In Part One we will simply set the stage. In Part Two we will discuss quirky John Bentinck and in the final installments we will unfold the strange mystery. Part One: The Quirky Background England has produced countless eccentric noblemen but it is doubtful any were as strange as the “Prince of Silence”. William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck had a very impressive political pedigree and since that may have contributed to his unusual behavior, we’ll begin by looking at the significance of his name. Even that is subject to controversy, as we shall see. All his brothers were named William, hence each went by his second name. John, the second of three sons, was born (1800) to William Bentinck, fourth Duke of Portland, whose own father and father-in-law had each served as Prime Minister of Great Britain. John’s mother was Henrietta Scott, whose brother-in-law had also served as Prime Minister of Great Britain. John was also the brother-in-law of Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount Ossington, who served as Speaker of the House of Commons during fifteen important years of John’s life. Obviously, Lord John was a member of an enormously powerful and influential political family. How it helped him, or hurt him, or hid him is part of the mystery. John’s fraternal side appears for the most part socially and psychologically normal. It is on John’s maternal side that a few cracks start to appear. Henrietta’s father was famed military officer General John Scott, whose nickname “Pawky” was Scots for “a shrewd, devious trickster”. An accomplished soldier and Member of Parliament for over twenty years, General Scott spent his inheritance gambling. Ordinarily we would write “squandered his inheritance gambling” but let’s not forgot the general’s nickname. He won, time and again. He claimed to have built a fortune of over £500,000 strictly through gambling. That is the modern equivalent of 60 million pounds or 82 million dollars. General Scott had one of the more famous gambling wins of the 19th century when he won over a million dollars in a game of whist. General Scott married twice. His first marriage ended when his bride eloped with another man during the honeymoon. His second marriage was to Margaret Dundas, daughter of the famous Judge Robert Dundas. Henrietta was their first child, named after Margaret’s mother. Henrietta had a reputation for repetitious quirkiness that modern psychologists would likely call autism. A cruel joke claimed the Fourth Duke of Portland married her as a consequence of a lost bet with her father; however, nothing suggests it was not a normal arranged marriage typical of the noble classes. Henrietta birthed seven children. (Some sources say nine.) None of the boys married, which gave rise to claims the Bentincks were woman haters, but John Bentinck couldn’t form relationships with anyone. We know that as a child John was shy and awkward. Something of a “mama’s boy”, he tended to hide behind Henrietta’s skirts. He also endured a sickly childhood; he was variously described as “frail” or “fragile”. He had a skin disease that periodically erupted in painful blisters that plagued him throughout life. Perhaps those are the reasons Henrietta insisted her son John be educated at home. So far as is known, John never attended a formal school. His first real excursion beyond his mother came in his teens when he attempted to fulfill the requirement of military service. His service was undistinguished. He was dismissed for “lethargy” in 1823. His quirks became evident. He expressed the desire to be invisible. He started wearing several layers of shirts. He wore heavy fur coats in the heat of summer. He wore wigs. It was as though he was trying to insulate himself from the world. He carried an umbrella that he would open to hide behind if anyone who got too close to him. A year later his older brother died and John became the Marquess of Titchfield. The title made him a Member of Parliament, but he had no interest in politics and intensely disliked being seen by others. Instead of public appearances, he preferred to deal with matters that he couldn’t ignore via correspondence. This led Sir William Foulkes to mock him: “He is a perfect stranger to you; you have never seen him and perhaps you never will see him; and I must say that had it not been for that most useful work ‘The Peerage’ I should never have known that such a person existed.” Again citing ill health, John resigned from Parliament, giving his valuable seat to an uncle. His father was livid, called him a failure, and publicly expressed the wish that his younger brother George could inherit the dukedom of Portland. That’s almost like saying he wished John dead. John moved out of Welbeck Abbey to take up residence in the family’s London home, Harcourt House. He had a high brick wall built around it to keep out prying eyes. Two important events occurred that further contributed to his quirkiness. The first was a failed love affair. He became infatuated with the beautiful opera singer Adelaide Kemble, member of the famous Kemble family of actors. She achieved such fame in England that she was invited to study under the world’s greatest soprano of the time, Giuditta Pasta in Italy. John followed her like a love sick puppy as she toured the continent to great acclaim. He may have been present when Adelaide hosted the famous composer and pianist Frederick Chopin in London. He hired a portraitist to sit in his private booth in the opera house and “capture her features from every angle”. The artist produced twelve paintings of Adelaide without her knowing. There is no indication that she ever returned his affections; indeed, her biographies don’t even mention him. She married Edward John Sartoris and their son, Algernon Charles Frederick Sartoris married Nellie Grant, daughter of U.S. President Ulysses Grant in a lavish White House ceremony. When Lord John learned of her marriage, he turned all her portraits to face the wall and sent an urgent message for the artist to take them back. The artist arrived to find Lord John curled up in a corner crying. The second crisis occurred when his younger brother George died. An extrovert who enjoyed the rowdy life, George, like his grandfather, was a gambler. His specialty was horse racing. He won over a million dollars (today’s dollar) and had several prominent people in debt to him. He headed a group to revise the rules of horse racing and betting which gained him such fame that he was appointed to several important government posts and seemed positioned to follow his father and ancestors in politics. One night, while walking to a friend’s house for dinner, he disappeared. A day later a search party found him dead on the side of the road. Although medical officials weren’t sure whether the cause of death was stroke or heart attack, they ruled it was a natural death. Nevertheless, rumors spread rapidly that he had been poisoned or had died of a gunshot wound, either via suicide or murder. Several eyewitnesses came forward who claimed they saw George and John walking together on the road near the spot George’s body had been found. Rumors lingered that the Marquis had murdered his brother. Was he an sickly, broken-hearted hermit; a coward hiding from vicious rumors; a lunatic babbling nonsense in the dark recesses of a manor; or did he perhaps have some ulterior motive for hiding? Might he have been as “pawky” as his brother George and his maternal grandfather? We’ll examine his quirkiness in Part Two. Until then… be sure to check out the art from all of our quirky but completely sane artists!
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