Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond

On 9 August 1675 he was created Duke of Richmond, Earl of March and Baron Settrington in the Peerage of England, and on 9 September 1675 was created Duke of Lennox, Earl of Darnley and Baron Methuen of Torbolten in the Peerage of Scotland.[1] He was invested as a Knight of the Garter on 18 April 1681 and created Duke of Aubigny in 1684.[2] He was appointed Lord High Admiral of Scotland, under reservation of the commission granted to James, Duke of Albany and York (later James VII), as Lord High Admiral for life. The appointment was therefore only effective between 1701 and 1705, when Lennox resigned all of his Scottish lands and offices.

It appears that he was Master of a Lodge in Chichester in 1696, and so was one of the few known seventeenth-century freemasons.

On 8 January 1692 he married Anne Brudenell (died 9 December 1722), a daughter of Francis Brudenell, Lord Brudenell (d. 1698), eldest son and heir apparent of Robert Brudenell, 2nd Earl of Cardigan. By Anne he had three children:

• Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, 2nd Duke of Lennox, son and heir, known during his father's lifetime by the courtesy title of Earl of March;
• Lady Louisa Lennox (24 December 1694 – 15 January 1716), who married James Berkeley, 3rd Earl of Berkeley;
• Lady Anne Lennox, later Countess of Albemarle.

By his mistress Jacqueline de Mézières he had a daughter:

• Renée Lennox (1709–1774), mistress of her cousin Charles Beauclerk, 2nd Duke of St Albans.

Richmond was a patron of cricket, then becoming a leading professional sport, and did much to develop it in Sussex. It is almost certain that he was involved with the earliest known "great match", which took place in the 1697 season and was the first to be reported by the press. The report was in the Foreign Post dated Wednesday, 7 July 1697:[3]

"The middle of last week a great match at cricket was played in Sussex; there were eleven of a side, and they played for fifty guineas apiece".

The stakes on offer confirm the importance of the fixture and the fact that it was eleven-a-side suggests that two strong and well-balanced teams were assembled.[3] No other details were given but the report provides evidence that top-class cricket, in the form of "great matches" played for high stakes, was in vogue at the time.[4] It was possibly an inter-county match: i.e., a Sussex XI versus a Kent XI or a Surrey XI.[4] Richmond sponsored a team in the 1702 season against an Arundel side.[5] His son Charles, the 2nd Duke, inherited his interest in cricket and became the patron of both Sussex county cricket teams and Slindon Cricket Club.

He died on 27 May 1723 and was buried on 7 June 1723 in the Henry VII Chapel of Westminster Abbey. His body was re-buried on 16 August 1750 in the Lady Chapel of Chichester Cathedral.

Richmond County, New York (coterminous with Staten Island) and Richmond County, Virginia, were named in Charles Lennox's honor (other US counties called "Richmond" were named for later Dukes).

• McCann, Tim (2004). Sussex Cricket in the Eighteenth Century. Sussex Record Society.

• Late Baron di Bauvso, Malta. 1 January 2000.
• The Adami Collection – collection of Parish records of Marriages, legacy and nobility, National Library of Malta, vol 10, pp 1838.