(1735 - 99), 2nd s. of Sir John Bingham, 5th Bt. of Castlebar, co. Mayo; suc. bro. 1752 as 7th Bt.; m. 1760 Margaret Smith (d. 1814); MP 1761 - 76 [I], 1782 - 4; cr. B. Lucan [I] 1776, E. of Lucan [I] 1795.
1755 Rome (Nov.?), Florence
1778 - 9 [Paris Nov. 1776] Rome (Jul. 1778), Florence (Oct.), Rome (by 11 Nov. 1778 - Apr. 1779), Florence (Apr.) [England by Sep.]
As Sir Charles Bingham he was in Rome in the winter of 1755, when he was said to have witnessed the death of Madame Gabrielli at Frascati.1 He probably also met Horace Mann who in 1778 was to refer to him as 'an old acquaintance'.2
In 1776 Lord and Lady Lucan set out for the Continent with their two older daughters, Lavinia (1762 - 1831, later Countess Spencer) and Margaret (1767 - 1839, later Mrs Thomas Lindsay), their son Richard (1764 - 1839), and a niece, Frances Molesworth. They left Paris in November 1776, intending to return in eighteen months time having visited Italy.3
Henry Swinburne saw the Lucans and two accomplished daughters in Rome in July 1778,4 and they were in Florence in October. They were, wrote Mann, 'a most amiable family': Lady Lucan 'is very clever and has many accomplishments, and is teaching them to her daughters, who by their judgment of the picture and all the collection in the Gallery are looked upon as prodigies at their age here. I wish they were as handsome as their cousin, Miss Molesworth, who is with them.'2 By 11 November they were back in Rome, attracting the attention of the Bishop of Derry who invited the six to dinner: 'it will be a family dinner', he wrote, 'and probably a cheerful one'.5 The Lucans spent five months in Rome6 during which Lady Lucan devoted herself to painting and in April 1779 she was made an honorary member of the Accademia di S.Luca.7 That same month they returned to Florence, Mann reporting that Lady Lucan had given him one of her paintings and Miss Molesworth had given him 'two very pretty drawings of her own drawing. The two Miss Binghams are improved in music and their brother is a fine lad in all the rusticity of a schoolboy. Him my Lord intends to leave at Neufchatel'; he mentioned that they had acquired 'a pretty little sarcophagus in Rome' for Horace Walpole - who received the news somewhat coolly.8 The Lucans were back in England by September.
1. HMC Charlemont, 1:223. 2. Wal.Corr., 24:417. 3. Ibid., 6:372 - 3. 4. Swinburne, Courts, 1:214, 216. 5. Childe-Pemberton, 1:223 (18 Nov. 1778). 6. Pembroke Papers, 1:215. 7. ANSL 53, f.121v. 8. Wal.Corr., 24:462, 475.