Isaac Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth

Isaac Newton Wallop, 5th Earl of Portsmouth MA DL JP(11 January 1825 - 4 October 1891) was a British Peer and the son of Newton Fellowes, 4th Earl of Portsmouth and Lady Eveline Alicia Juliana Herbert.

Early life

Portsmouth was born as Isaac Newton Fellowes, but later resumed the family surname and arms of Wallop without Royal License when he succeeded to the peerage in 1854. He was the son of Newton Fellowes, 4th Earl of Portsmouth and Lady Catherine Fortescue, daughter of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue.

He was educated at Rugby School and matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge.

The Newton Papers

In 1872, Lord Portsmouth donated a vast collection of papers by Sir Isaac Newton to his Alma mater Trinity College, Cambridge which had descended through Newton's great-niece Catherine Conduitt, daughter of John Conduitt and Catherine Barton, into the Wallop family by her marriage to John Wallop, Viscount Lymington.

A committee chaired by John Couch Adams and Sir George Stokes was appointed by the University to review the papers. Adams and Stokes selected only Newton's scientific papers, not wanting to blemish his reputation as an enlightened intellectual and scientist. After spending sixteen years cataloging Newton's papers, Cambridge University kept a small number and returned the rest to the Earl of Portsmouth.

Marriage and Issue

He married Lady Eveline Alicia Juliana Herbert, daughter of Henry John George Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon, by his wife Henrietta Anna Howard, daughter of Lord Henry Thomas Howard-Molyneux-Howard (yr. brother of Bernard Howard, 12th Duke of Norfolk) on 15 February 1855. They had twelve children:

• Lady Rosamond Alicia Wallop (d. 19 Nov 1935), married Augustus Langham Christie in 1882 and had issue
• Lady Eveline Camilla Wallop (d. 13 Sept 1894), married William Brampton Gurdon MP in 1887; died without issue
• Lady Catherine Henrietta Wallop (d. 21 Aug 1935), married Charles Milnes Gaskell MP in 1876 and had issue
• Lady Dorothea Hester Bluett Wallop (d. 29 Dec 1906), married Major Sir Richard Nelson Rycroft, 5th Bt. in 1886 and had issue
• Lady Gwendolen Margaret Wallop (d. 14 Feb 1943), married Vernon James Watney in 1891; had issue, grandmother of Charles Lyell, 2nd Baron Lyell VC
• Lady Henrietta Anna Wallop (d. 8 Feb 1932), married John Carbery Evans in 1890; died without issue.
• Newton Wallop, 6th Earl of Portsmouth (19 Jan 1856 - Dec 1917), married Beatrice Mary Pease on 17 February 1885; died without issue
• John Fellowes Wallop, 7th Earl of Portsmouth (27 Dec 1859 - 7 Sep 1925); died unmarried
• Oliver Henry Wallop, 8th Earl of Portsmouth (13 Jan 1861 - 10 Feb 1943), married Marguerite Walker in 1897; had issue:
  • Gerard Vernon Wallop, 9th Earl of Portsmouth
  • Hon. Oliver Malcolm Wallop; father of Malcolm Wallop
• Hon. Robert Gerard Valoynes Wallop JP (6 Jul 1864 - 22 Aug 1940)
• Rev. Hon. Arthur George Edward Wallop BA(12 Oct 1867 - 22 Dec 1898)
• Hon. Frederick Henry Arthur Wallop BA (16 Feb 1870 - 9 Aug 1953)

Honours

Lord Portsmouth declined the elevation to a Marquessate and the offer to become a Knight of the Garter from Prime Minister Gladstone, thinking them 'beyond his merits'.

Death

He died on 4 October 1891 aged 66 and was succeeded in the Earldom by his son, Newton Wallop, 6th Earl of Portsmouth.