The Herschel Knighthoods: Facts and Fiction

Hanover belonged to the vast system of German states that comprised the Holy Roman Empire, and was an ‘electorate’ on account of the fact that that its ruling prince, or ‘elector’, participated with eight other leading princes in the election of the holy roman emperor.

Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne in 1837, but not in Hanover where the Salic Law, which governed the succession, prohibited a female from becoming ruler. The personal union therefore ended, and the two countries ceased to be linked by a single monarch. For several useful essays on the Anglo-Hanoverian connection, see Simms B. Riotte T. , The Hanoverian dimension in British history, 1714–1837 (Cambridge, 2007).

In 1756 Herschel's regiment was summoned to reinforce Britain against possible French invasion, but returned home in January 1757, only to be defeated at the Battle of Hastenbeck six months later. At his father's insistence the boy William deserted and fled to England, where he chose to remain even after the defeat of the French in 1759. Hoskin Michael , The Herschels of Hanover (Cambridge, 2007), 20–2.

Hoskin , Herschels (ref. 3), 22.

Statute 33 Geo. III (Private), c. 38.

Royal Astronomical Society Herschel archive (hereafter: RAS) W.7/8.

Banks had been created a baronet in 1781. The holder of a baronetcy was entitled to the prefix style of ‘Sir’, but unlike an ordinary knighthood, the title could be inherited by an elder son.

On this episode, see Hoskin Michael , “Herschel's 40ft reflector: Funding and functions”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxiv (2003), 1–32.

Hoskin , Herschels (ref. 3), 68; The Times, 16 Jan. 1816, 2.

College of Arms, London, Ms ‘Guelphic Order’, f. 153, printed extract from Schaedtler Heinrich , Kurze Beschreibung des Königlich Hannoverschen Guelphen-Ordens, nebst beigefügten Abbildungen, Ordens-Statuten und Ritter-Listen (Hanover, 1816).

The Order is discussed in Hanham Andrew , “Regency knights: The Royal Guelphic Order, 1815–1837”, The Coat of Arms, 3rd ser., iv (2008), 101–24.

During the reign of William IV (1830–37), however, the Order did become extensively used by the British government.

The Order was also variously known as the “Royal Hanoverian Order”, as the “Order of the Guelphs”, or, somewhat tautologically as the “Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order”.

Johann Hieronymus Schroeter, known to historians of astronomy for the leading role he played in 1800 in organising a cooperative search for a planet between Mars and Jupiter, and an amateur observer with close links to Herschel, was appointed to the second class of the Order in July 1816 on account of his status as a provincial governor.

Herschel Mrs John , Memoir and correspondence of Caroline Herschel, 2nd edn (London, 1879), 125.

RAS W.1/13.M.103, Münster to Herschel, 25 Apr. 1816.

RAS W.1/13.M.102, Münster to Herschel, 23 Sept. 1813.

We do not know how Herschel was styled in the letter addressed to him announcing the award. The Sotheby's auction sale of Herschel papers in 1958 included in lot 473 the “diplomas” for his various honours and “the letter to him announcing his nomination as a Civil Knight of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order”.

Carlisle N. , A concise account of the several foreign orders of knighthood (London, 1839), p. xxiii. A knighthood could only be bestowed by the king in person through the brief ceremony of knighting or ‘dubbing’ in which the knight-designate, kneeling before the monarch, was tapped by him on each shoulder with the flat edge of a sword.

This contrasted, however, with British practice in the Order of the Bath which, like the Guelphic Order, was a three-class order, though its third class members were designated not as ‘knights’ but as ‘companions’, and were not entitled to knighthood.

By the later 1820s, however, as many more British appointees joined the Order, it became customary for recipients of the first and second classes additionally to be knighted by the king (as ordinary ‘knights bachelor’), enabling them to use the title of ‘Sir’ (if they were not knights already); recipients of the third class were not knighted, however, unless the king specifically chose otherwise.

Herschel's Caroline Memoir (ref. 15), 125; The Times, 15 May 1816.

The London Gazette, 21 May 1816.

The Times , 17 May 1816; La belle assemblée, or Bell's Court and fashionable magazine, May 1816, 227. After he became King in 1820, the Prince Regent transformed Buckingham House, then a residence, into what is now Buckingham Palace.

There was certainly an opportunity as the Prince Regent had paid a brief visit to Windsor Castle during 9–10 April 1816 and could easily have summoned Herschel from nearby Slough to be dubbed a knight.

For example Anthony Carlisle, Surgeon Extraordinary to the King, was presented as “Mr. Carlisle” at a levee on 24 July 1821 (The Times, 26 July 1821) but was “Sir A. Carlisle” at a Drawing Room that shortly followed (The Times, 27 July 1821).

RAS W.7/9.

As he did, for example, in his will, dated 17 December 1818: The National Archives, PROB 11/1662/213.

RAS W.7/10.

Royal Society, Herschel Papers, HS 13.146, Nayler to John Herschel, 10 April 1818.

The Times, 6 Sept. 1822.

Townshend Francis , Calendar of knights, containing lists of knights bachelors, British knights of foreign orders, also knights of the Garter, Thistle, Bath, St. Patrick and the Guelphic and Ionian orders, from 1760 to the present time (London, 1828).

As a member of the College of Arms, Townshend had full access to the official lists of knights maintained at the College; see Townshend , Calendar of knights, pp. v–vii.

Besides Herschel, they were David Brewster (mathematician, physicist and astronomer), Ivory James (mathematician), John Leslie (mathematician and physicist), Charles Babbage (mathematician), Charles Konig (mineralogist and botanist), and Charles Bell (anatomist).

Royal Society, HS 16.392, Somerville to Herschel, 14 Sept. 1831.

Royal Society, HS 16.393, Herschel to Somerville, 16 Sept. 1831.

Royal Society, HS 16.395, Somerville to Herschel, 29 Sept. 1831.

Royal Society, HS 16.396, Herschel to Somerville, 30 Sept. 1831.

See Craik Alex D. D. , “James Ivory, F.R.S., mathematician: ‘The most unlucky person that ever existed’”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, liv (2000), 223–47.

Royal Society, HS 10.256, Ivory to Herschel, 14 Oct. 1831; University College London, Special Collections, Brougham Papers, HB 8614, Ivory to Brougham, 22 Oct. 1831. Cited by Craik , “James Ivory” (ref. 39), 238, 239. In 1842, in his obituary tribute to Ivory, the Marquess of Northampton, as President of the Royal Society, said of him: “In 1831, the Hanoverian Guelphic Order of Knighthood was conferred on him by King William IV, and it was intimated that he might also receive the British Knighthood, but this he declined, as the title would have been inconsistent with his circumstances.” London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine, 3rd ser., xxii (1843), Proceedings of Learned Societies: The Royal Society, Address of the President, Anniversary Meeting, 30 Nov. 1842, obituary of Mr. James Ivory, 142–8.

Babbage had viewed as an insult the offer of the lowest class of what he damned as a foreign Order, and had written to Brougham refusing the award on 23 Sept. (British Library, Additional Manuscripts 37186, f. 97: Babbage to Brougham (draft), 23 Sept. 1831). However, it reached Brougham too late to prevent publication of his name, which was gazetted in Hanover with the others in the Hannoversche Nachrichten.

The London Gazette, 14 Oct. 1831, 2108.

University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center, John Herschel collection, folder 25.5, John to Caroline Herschel, 15 Oct. 1831. Herschel's own diary record of the occasion makes the same connection: “Went to the levee to be knighted K.G.H.” Harry Ransom Center, John Herschel collection, folder 17.1, John Herschel's diary for 12 Oct. 1831.

British Library, Additional MSS 31786 (Babbage Papers), f. 114: Brewster to Babbage, 11 Oct. 1831; Brougham Papers, HB: 26612, Brewster to Brougham, 17 Oct. 1831.

Brewster told Babbage that Brougham had also addressed his fellow Scot, John Leslie, as “Sir John”. This would suggest that Brougham had in fact addressed all six of the new Guelphic knights by the style of “Sir” in his letters notifying them of their awards. Herschel, for his part, would have recognised at once that he could not legitimately assume the title without having been knighted by the King, or would otherwise find himself in the same awkward predicament as his father. Brougham may therefore have unwittingly given Herschel an effective pretext to expect a substantive knighthood.

Additional MSS 31786, ff. 124–5: Brewster to Babbage, 16 Oct. 1831.

Brougham Papers, HB: 26612, Brewster to Brougham, 17 Oct. 1831.

Additional MSS 31786, f. 150: Brewster to Babbage, 17 Nov. 1831. See also, Gordon Margaret , The home life of Sir David Brewster, by his daughter Mrs Gordon, 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1870), 153. Brewster was accordingly knighted by the King on 8 Mar. 1832. It is possible that for similar reasons John Leslie was knighted on 26 June 1832. Charles Konig was not knighted, possibly because as a native of the German duchy of Brunswick he had not been naturalized as a British subject.

The London Gazette , 14 October 1831, 2108. The title of ‘Esq.’ was a courtesy used until very recently in Britain when referring to adult males. “J. F. W. Herschel Esq.” was the formal equivalent of “Mr Herschel”. Charles Bell, John Leslie and the antiquarian Nicholas Harris Nicolas (who was nominated in the place of Babbage) were similarly styled ‘Esq.’ in The London Gazette when they received their knighthoods.

Burke J. , A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the peerage and baronetage of the British Empire (London, 1839), 528.