Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/101

 condition of the provinces. In 1791 an act of parliament—which had been prepared by William Grenville, and revised by Dorchester—was passed. By the provisions of this act (31 Geo. Ill, c. 31) Canada was divided into two provinces, viz. Upper Canada (now Ontario) and Lower Canada (now Quebec), and a similar constitution was given to each. Dorchester was absent from Canada from 17 Aug. 1791 to 24 Sept. 1793, during which time the government of the provinces devolved on Major-general Alured Clarke, the lieutenant-governor. Dorchester took his final departure from Quebec on 9 July 1796, and was succeeded by Major-general Prescott. The Active, in which he embarked with his family, was wrecked on Anticosti. No lives were lost, and on 19 Sept. they reached Portsmouth in H.M.S. Dover without any further mishap. On 16 July 1790 he was appointed colonel of the 15th dragoons, and on 12 Oct. 1793 raised to the rank of a general in the army. On 18 March 1801 he became colonel of the 27th dragoons, from which regiment he was transferred on 14 Aug. 1802 to the command of the 4th dragoons. After his return from England he lived in retirement first at Kempshot, near Basingstoke, and afterwards at Stubbings, near Maidenhead, where he died suddenly on 10 Nov. 1808. Dorchester, though a severe disciplinarian, was a man of humane conduct and of sound common sense. His kind treatment of the Canadian people, and of the American prisoners during the war, did him infinite credit, as well as his attempts to check the excesses of the Indians employed by the government against the colonists.

He married, on 22 May 1772, Lady Maria, the third daughter of Thomas, second earl of Effingham, by whom he had nine sons and two daughters. His widow survived him for many years, and died on 14 March 1836, aged 82. He was succeeded in the title by his grandson, Arthur, the only son of Christopher, his third son. The present and fourth baron is also a grandson of the first peer, being the eldest son of Richard, the youngest of the nine sons. The Royal Institution possesses a large number of manuscripts which formerly belonged to Maurice Morgan, Dorchester's secretary during the last years of the American war. These consist solely of American official documents. In the British Museum, among the Add. MSS., some of his correspondence while governor of Quebec will be found.



CARLETON, (d. 1725). [See .]

CARLETON, HUGH, (1739–1826), lord chief justice of Ireland, eldest son of Francis Carleton of Cork, by Rebecca, daughter of John Lanton, was born 11 Sept. 1739. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and being called to the Irish bar became solicitor-general in 1779, and lord chief justice of the common pleas in 1787. In 1789 he was created Baron Carleton of Amer, and in 1797 Viscount Carleton of Clare, Tipperary. He became lord chief justice in 1800, and the same year was chosen one of the twenty-eight representative peers of Ireland. In 1803, having incensed the mob by the trial and condemnation of the two councillors Sheers, to whom he had been left guardian by their father, he only escaped their summary vengeance by Lord Kilwarden being killed in mistake for him. Curran, referring to the lugubrious manner of Carleton on the bench, said that he was plaintiff (plaintive) in every case before him. He died in 1826. He married in 1766 Elizabeth, only daughter of Richard Mercer, and in 1795 Mary Buckley, second daughter of Andrew Matthew; but by neither marriage had he any issue.



CARLETON, MARY (1642?–1673), 'the German princess,' was born, by her own account, at Cologne, her father being Henry van Wolway, lord of Holmstein. It was also said that she was the only daughter of the Duke of Oundenia, born 10 April 1639 (Life of the Famous Madam Charlton, pp. 2-3), but she confessed just before her execution that she was Mary Moders of Canterbury, daughter of a chorister of the cathedral, and born on 22 Jan. 1642. Various accounts are given of her early life, but all agree that she came from Holland about 1661 to London, where her imposture commenced. She was witty and handsome, 'Dutch-built &hellip; a stout Fregat.' One King, a vintner, and his wife were her first dupes, and to them she represented her fortune as approaching 80,000l. a year. In April 1663 she married