Long, Charles, Baron Farnborough (1761 -1838)

Charles Long, born in 1761, was the fourth, but third surviving, son of Beeston Long, of Carshalton in Surrey, and a member of a well known family of West India merchants, and Susannah, daughter and heir of Abraham Cropp. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He entered Parliament as one of the Members for Rye 1789 1796, sat for Midhurst in 1796, for Wendover in 1802, and for Haslemere from 1806 until 1826, when he retired from politics. In 1791 he was joint Secretary of the Treasury, retired with Pitt, and returned to power with him as one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. In February 1806 he became Secretary of State for Ireland, and afterwards Paymaster General. In 1820 he was made a Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. Lieutenant Colonel of the Lee and Lewisham Volunteers, a Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Society of Antiquaries. He married Amelia Hume in 1793, but they had no children. Always interested in art he helped both George III and George IV with the interior decoration of their palaces, and built himself Bromley High Place in Kent. He died 17 January 1838. A Trustee of the British Museum, he bequeathed a considerable sum of money to the Trustees to augment the Bridgewater Fund. The stamp was cut to mark the manuscripts bought with the money.