Read Online For Honour's Sake by Mark Zuehlke - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Mark Zuehlke
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made an attractive match.
Munbee soon succumbed to the common temptation of absentee colonial estate holders by living far beyond his means. To cover the growing debts, he mortgaged the estate several times over. Young Henry was oblivious to the brewing calamity of this financial recklessness, revelling in the idyllic environment of Prinknash Park, a Cotswold country manor four miles from Gloucester that Munbee rented. Here he frolicked through a small beech forest, doing his best to escape attempts by Munbee and the local curate to instill the beginnings of an educationâa process complicated by the fact that the Goulburns followed the fashion of the times for nobility of speaking French at home, so that the boy was more conversant in this language than in English. He was also given to tantrums, resulting in long periods of incarceration in his room that interrupted his education. When Henry turned seven he was packed off to Dr. Mooreâs School in Sunbury and surprisingly discovered that his English and Latin equalled that of the other students. But his âpassionateâ temper remained, marked by impetuosity and rebelliousness that got him into constant trouble.
Then his father died, and Susannahâs comfortable life collapsed as Munbeeâs many debts were called in and she was forced to sell his personal property and cast the familyâs affairs to the Court of Chancery for disposition. At the same time her health, always frail, began to decline. While waiting for the grindingly slow court determination on what, if any, of the estate in Jamaica would remain hers, Susannah was by stages forced to find more modest residences. Years dragged by and circumstances only worsened, while the court was closed more often than engaged in deliberations over the many such cases lying before it. Eventually, through the intervention of family friend Matthew Montagu, Spencer Percevalâthen a prominent lawyerâhelped negotiate their case through the court. Seeing much potential in the young lad, Montagu also took an interest in Henryâs future.
At sixteen, Henry began studying for the entrance exams to Trinity College, Cambridge. Upon his fatherâs death, he had undergone a distinct character change. As his motherâs health worsened, the bouts of sickness becoming more extended, Henry had quietly assumed the role of head of the household, to the point of even supervising the business management of the Jamaican estate. In Matthew Montagu the teenager found a father figure, the man showing uncommon integrity that Goulburn sought to emulate.
By the end of 1801, Goulburn matriculated and was admitted to Trinity. He studied hard, but was handicapped by having had no consistent tutoring or schooling during his childhood. There was also the problem of poverty relative to his peers. While there was sufficient money to cover tuition, Goulburn carefully concealed the fact that there was no butler to clean his clothes or servant to prepare the family breakfast. Not long before graduating with an MA in 1808, Henry had to sell his motherâs dinnerware to raise sufficient money to provide her with an allowance capable of covering the cost of a small house in Phillimore Place, Kensington, where she could live out the last of her life in relative comfort.
Goulburn left Cambridge with an unremarkable academic record, a belief in evangelical Anglicanism that suited his deeply conservative world outlook, and vital links with men holding positions of power in the government that Montagu knew would serve the young man well in the future. Disinclined to enter into commerce or to return to Jamaica to directly oversee the plantation that now yielded an annual return after expenses of £2,000, Goulburn was drawn to public service. He naturally inclined this way, his religion and tutelage by Montagu having instilled in him the belief that this was a higher calling for a man of good character.
In 1807, he gained
Munbee soon succumbed to the common temptation of absentee colonial estate holders by living far beyond his means. To cover the growing debts, he mortgaged the estate several times over. Young Henry was oblivious to the brewing calamity of this financial recklessness, revelling in the idyllic environment of Prinknash Park, a Cotswold country manor four miles from Gloucester that Munbee rented. Here he frolicked through a small beech forest, doing his best to escape attempts by Munbee and the local curate to instill the beginnings of an educationâa process complicated by the fact that the Goulburns followed the fashion of the times for nobility of speaking French at home, so that the boy was more conversant in this language than in English. He was also given to tantrums, resulting in long periods of incarceration in his room that interrupted his education. When Henry turned seven he was packed off to Dr. Mooreâs School in Sunbury and surprisingly discovered that his English and Latin equalled that of the other students. But his âpassionateâ temper remained, marked by impetuosity and rebelliousness that got him into constant trouble.
Then his father died, and Susannahâs comfortable life collapsed as Munbeeâs many debts were called in and she was forced to sell his personal property and cast the familyâs affairs to the Court of Chancery for disposition. At the same time her health, always frail, began to decline. While waiting for the grindingly slow court determination on what, if any, of the estate in Jamaica would remain hers, Susannah was by stages forced to find more modest residences. Years dragged by and circumstances only worsened, while the court was closed more often than engaged in deliberations over the many such cases lying before it. Eventually, through the intervention of family friend Matthew Montagu, Spencer Percevalâthen a prominent lawyerâhelped negotiate their case through the court. Seeing much potential in the young lad, Montagu also took an interest in Henryâs future.
At sixteen, Henry began studying for the entrance exams to Trinity College, Cambridge. Upon his fatherâs death, he had undergone a distinct character change. As his motherâs health worsened, the bouts of sickness becoming more extended, Henry had quietly assumed the role of head of the household, to the point of even supervising the business management of the Jamaican estate. In Matthew Montagu the teenager found a father figure, the man showing uncommon integrity that Goulburn sought to emulate.
By the end of 1801, Goulburn matriculated and was admitted to Trinity. He studied hard, but was handicapped by having had no consistent tutoring or schooling during his childhood. There was also the problem of poverty relative to his peers. While there was sufficient money to cover tuition, Goulburn carefully concealed the fact that there was no butler to clean his clothes or servant to prepare the family breakfast. Not long before graduating with an MA in 1808, Henry had to sell his motherâs dinnerware to raise sufficient money to provide her with an allowance capable of covering the cost of a small house in Phillimore Place, Kensington, where she could live out the last of her life in relative comfort.
Goulburn left Cambridge with an unremarkable academic record, a belief in evangelical Anglicanism that suited his deeply conservative world outlook, and vital links with men holding positions of power in the government that Montagu knew would serve the young man well in the future. Disinclined to enter into commerce or to return to Jamaica to directly oversee the plantation that now yielded an annual return after expenses of £2,000, Goulburn was drawn to public service. He naturally inclined this way, his religion and tutelage by Montagu having instilled in him the belief that this was a higher calling for a man of good character.
In 1807, he gained
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