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Sir Frederick Hankey GCMG (1774-1855)

 

Third son of John Hankey of Mincing Lane, Frederick was born on 13 Mar 1774 and baptised on 4 Apr at St Dunstan in the East. Educated at Charterhouse School Jun 1784-Jun 1790 (Berdmore’s house).

His father having died in 1792, Frederick was often with his cousins at Bedford Square, where the table was always open to him. ‘Nothing was so constant as quizzing & telling exaggerated good stories of their acquaintance who were considered quizzible’ and Frederick, ‘who was what is called a very sharp tag, was inexhaustible in his anecdotes’. ‘The great fun used to be to tell John Hankey’s three sons that there was a cousin for each of them. Jack the eldest had at that time rather a preference for me [Matilda, daughter of Robert Hankey] & he was very sore about it. Fred however could laugh heartily & help forward the joke, little thinking he was to take the eldest Miss Hankey himself’.

 

 

Lady (Caterina) Hankey

 

Col. Sir Frederick Hankey,GCMG

 

Charlotte persuaded him to leave off the family business of ‘making sugar’, and take a commission in the Guards, which he did before he was of age. Frederick thus became the first of the Hankeys to embark on a military career. He was in the 1st Foot 1793, and served with the Duke of York in the Low Countries in 1794; he went to India and Ceylon in 1797, and was Ensign 90th Foot Sep 1800; Major 50th Foot 1808, of 2nd Ceylon Regiment 1809, and of 15th Foot 1815 to 1816, when placed on half pay.

‘Sir Frederick Hankey was very extravagant when young & entered the army & rose to be Colonel. He then gambled to a great extent & having no money to pay, sold his Colonelcy & did so. Returned to England, told his father, who as a last gift gave him £1000. Went to town to Duke of York’s Office & obtained a low commission about 2 steps up. He then bought as much higher as he could with his £1000 & finally became Colonel a 2nd time. He spoilt his son Fred. He sold his Commission a second time (but retained his title by permission of Government) for £4000. He was once wounded in battle, but saw little field service.’

Frederick was married on 7 Jul 1796 at Fetcham to his first cousin Charlotte Hankey (1774-1816), eldest daughter of the late Thomas Hankey of Fetcham Park. The Monthly Mirror of July 1796 recorded the marriage of ‘Capt Hankey, of the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, to Miss Pankey, of Bedford Square’; this printing error caused a correspondent in Notes & Queries, March 1900, to suggest this was the origin of the phrase Hanky-Panky’!

 

Frederick and Charlotte had two daughters surviving:

 

Charlotte died at Worthing on 25 Sep 1816, aged 42 and after 20 years of marriage, and was buried on 10 Oct at St Dionis Backchurch; she was reinterred at Kensal Green in July 1878 (catacomb B, vault 45). Her daughter Frederica ‘had been born when her mother was so near her end that she never knew she had given birth to another child - but kind Mrs Hankey [Frederica’s maternal grandmother], who was twenty times a mother to the Frederick Hankeys, brought it up with great care’.

Frederick was on the Staff of Sir Thomas Maitland from 1805 when Sir Thomas was Governor of Ceylon, and was his Secretary (1814-1824) when Sir Thomas was High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands.

On 8 Nov 1818 Lt-Col Frederick Hankey was married a second time, at the Palace of Corfu, to a native of that island, Caterina Regina Varlamo, daughter of Sieur Alfieri Nicholas Varlamo, of Krevatsoula, Dassia, Corfu. She was of a terrible temper which he bore with very well. She was divorced from a man living when he married her, but he had three other wives, and as the divorce & marriage were both legal by the laws of her country (Corfu) she was recognised as Lady Hankey by the Marchioness of Hastings.

Frederick Hankey was Secretary to the Order of St Michael and St George from 1818 to 1833. Shortly after his marriage, on 18 November 1818 at Corfu, he was invested KCMG. He was invested GCMG in 1833 for his services in Malta.

Sir Frederick was from 1825 to 1838 Secretary to the Governor of Malta Sir Thomas Maitland & the Marquis of Hastings at a salary of £1500 with a Government Residence (at 86 Strada Vescovo), and afterwards had a retiring pension of £700. He was placed as a check on the Marquis of Hastings (who was very extravagant & was not satisfied with £50,000 a year as Governor General of India) lest he might draw on the Treasury.

By Caterina, Sir Frederick had a son and a daughter, both born in Corfu:

 

 

 

Frederick and Thomasina Ionia Hankey, c.1828

 

 

 

Sir Frederick had a grant of supporters to his arms, in approval of his long services. Colonel 1825, retired 1826. In 1825 he was living at 86 Strada Vescovo.

Sir Frederick was a first rate man of business and an exceedingly liberal character. He used to say ‘Never forget a man’s name’ & always found something to say to everybody on every occasion.

Caterina died on 26 May 1833 at Malta, and was buried in the Greek Orthodox cemetery at Floriana; her tomb is now at the Msida Bastion Garden of Rest. Recorded as being Governor of Cyprus and of St Helena [?]. In 1841 he and his son were living at 14 Lower Berkeley Street, Marylebone.

Sir Frederick died at 7 Montagu Square on 13 March 1855, his 81st birthday, and was buried on 17 Mar at Kensal Green (catacomb B, vault 120); his will was proved on 30 Mar 1855 at London.

 

On 18 Nov 1827, 25 year-old Henry Edward Fox (later 4th Lord Holland) met Sir Frederick and Lady Hankey at a dinner party in Rome. He wrote: ‘I was obliged to hasten to dine with the Braccianos at 4. It was a great dinner:- Orsinis, Piombino, Lady Drummond and Sir F. and Lady Hankey. Sir F. is going to England from Malta where he is second-in-command. He is clever; but noisy, vulgar, narrow-minded and hard-hearted. He lamented the victory at Navarino and rejoiced in Lord Guildford’s death. Nothing could better portray his character. He was ever the creature of Sir T. Maitland and has worthily followed his footsteps. His wife is a Greek. She is dreadfully fat, and being now with child looks fatter, but she is lovely; her eyes; her teeth, her complexion, one the finest I ever saw almost. The latter I never saw rivalled but by my mother many years ago.’