Richard Godolphin Long

For other people named Richard Long, see Richard Long (disambiguation).

Richard Godolphin Long (2 October 1761 – 1 July 1835)^[1] was an English banker and Tory politician.

Life and career

Baptised at West Lavington, Wiltshire a month after his birth, he was the son of Richard Long (died 1787)^[2] and his wife Meliora, descendant of Sir John Lambe.^[3]

By 1800, Long was a partner in the Melksham Bank, together with his younger brother John Long, John Awdry and Thomas Bruges.^[4] In 1799, he purchased Steeple Ashton Manor House and farm,^[5] which remained in the family until 1967, and commissioned architect Jeffry Wyattville to build Rood Ashton House nearby in 1808.^[6]

He was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire for 1794. Long entered the House of Commons in 1806, sitting for Wiltshire until 1818.^[1] He was the founder of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry.

Family

On 28 March 1786, he married Florentina Wrey, third daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 6th Baronet,^[2] and had by her four daughters and two sons.^[7] After a lingering illness Long died aged 73, at Rood Ashton House, six weeks after his wife, and was interred in the family's crypt at St Mary's Church, Steeple Ashton.^[2] Their children included:

• Walter (1793–1867), the eldest son, was also a member of parliament, representing North Wiltshire^[8]
• Ellen, the eldest daughter, married John Walmesley in 1812;^[9] their children included Richard Walmesley (1816–1893), a lawyer and latterly owner of Lucknam Park, Wiltshire^[10]
• Florentina (Flora), having been previously engaged to Henry Cobbe (uncle of Frances Power Cobbe), who had died the day before the proposed marriage,^[11] formed a strong attachment to the then-elderly poet George Crabbe.^[12] Flora and her aunts were frequent visitors of novelist Jane Austen, who referred to Flora as her 'cousin', though their exact relationship is not known.^[13] Austen never met Crabbe, but nursed a fantasy of becoming his wife.^[14]