Thomas Creevey was born in Liverpool in 1768, he trained first as a lawyer but went on to be an MP in the early 1800s. Known as a wit and a man about town, he was a fixture of the Regency social scene. After his death he passed into obscurity, but his copious diaries and writings survived and were published in 1903 to great acclaim and were a best seller.
One of the reasons the publication of the creevey papers was such a success was due to the candour and wit of Creevey’s writings, this passage about the Bennets, Earl Tankerville is typical (the tankervilles title comes from Tancarville in Normandy but has been through many iterations and at one time the family seat was Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland)
- “…Bennet has been here, and is now returned to Bath. He is most desirous to know you, and I promised I would write to you and mention him by way of introduction. He is most amiable, occasionally most boring, but at all times most upright and honorable. Make him introduce you to Lord and Lady Tankerville. The former is very fond of me; he is a haughty, honorable man- has lived at one time in the heart of political leaders…has been in office several times and is now a misanthrope, but very communicative and entertaining when he likes his man. His only remaining passion is for clever men, of which description he considers himself as one, tho‘ certainly unjustly. Lady Tankerville has perhaps as much merit as any woman in england. She is too, very clever, and has great wit; but she, like her Lord is depressed and unhappy. They compose together the most striking libel upon the blessing of fortune; they are rich much beyond their desires or expednisture, they have the most elevated rank of their country, I know of nothing to disturb their happpiness, and the are apparently the most miserable people I ever saw”
Creevey to Dr Currie May 11 1805
Another feature of Creevey’s writings that draws comment and is evidence of the ‘playful’ and irreverent nature that shines through his writing, is his use of nicknames. I’ve included a few here, although there are quite a few more, and it gives a sense of the familiarity with ‘high circles’. It’s unclear with some of them quite how freely he used them to people’s faces but I get the sense that he often did. You’ll notice that some people have a couple, this usually happened when they annoyed him, changing Henry Brougham’s (an MP and later Lord High Chancellor) to ‘Beelzebub’ is self explanatory…
JG Lambton, later Lord Durham was called ‘King Jog’ because he could quite happily jog along on only £40,000 a year….
Less clear are the origins of some of the others. Creevey does give one account in his writing of the origin of his nickname for George Tierney, an MP and at this time the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons
- “The reason I call Tierney by the name of ‘Cole’ is this. It used to be his constant practice in making his speeches in Parliament to bear particular testimony to his own character – to his being a ‘plain man’ ‘an honest man’ or something of that kind. Having heard him at this work several times, it occurred to me that he had formed himself upon that distinguished model Mrs Cole, and old lady in one of Foote’s farces, who presided over a female establishment in convent garden who was always indulgin herself with flattering references to her own character….Brougham was for many years quite enamoured of the resemblance of the portrait. He christened Abercromby Young Cole and the shabby party ‘the Coles’ but he has become more prudent and respectful of late”
Creevey would need to be careful who he was calling what because in 1798 George Tierney had been accused of having a lack of patriotism by William Pitt the prime minister leading to a duel between the two on Putney heath.
Increasingly over the last years of his life Creevey would have to turn to friends and supporters for financial support, and largely because of the esteem in which he was held it was often willingly given. But he doesn’t seem to have required much, as Charles Greville, the diarist, was to highlight in 1829
“Old Creevey is a rather extraordinary character…he possesses nothing but his clothes; no property of any sort; he leads a vagrant life, visiting a number of people who are delighted to have him… He has no servant, no home, no creditors, he buys everything a he wants it at the place he is at; he has no ties upon him, and has his time entirely at his own disposal and that of his friends. He is certainly a living proof that a man may be perfectly happy and exceedingly poor…I think he is the only man I know in society who possesses nothing”
Not everyone was quite so keen on Creevey though, in 1824 he met John Hobhouse, another politician who had this to say about him
- “He seemed to me a very wag, and one who would let no principle of any kind stand in the way of his joke. When he had no jest to excite laughter he tried grimaces … Of Creevey’s superior abilities there can be no doubt… which might adorn a higher character than he had endeavoured to acquire.”
The feeling was mutual though, Creevey describing him as Odious.
Thomas Creevey Died in 1838. The majority of his papers survived and were meticulously kept by his step daughter Elizabeth Ord, whereby they were eventually to pass to her eldest grandson, and then his wife, Mrs Blackett-Ord of Whitfield Hall, who arranged with Herbert Maxwell the publication of the Creevey Papers in 1903. They were to eventually be deposited at Northumberland Archives in the 1970s.
