Henry Villiers-Stuart

Henry Windsor Villiers-Stuart (13 September 1827 – 12 October 1895), was a British soldier, clergyman, politician, Egyptologist, and author.

Parentage He was the son of Henry Villiers-Stuart, 1st and last Baron Stuart de Decies, son of Lord Henry Stuart and his wife, Lady Gertrude Amelia, daughter of George Mason-Villiers, 2nd Earl Grandison. His paternal great-grandfather was John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute, son of Prime Minister John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute.

His mother was Theresia Pauline (née Ott), an Austrian Roman Catholic from Vienna. His parents married on 12 January 1826 in a Roman Catholic service at St James's, Spanish Place, London, and also under Scottish law, but there was uncertainty over whether Theresia was free to marry. As a result of this confusion the younger Henry Villiers-Stuart, after the death of his father in 1874, was unable to establish his claim to the peerage and become the 2nd Baron Stuart de Decies. Theresia's married name became Villiers-Stuart, and, as a result of her marriage, she was styled as Baroness Stuart de Decies on 10 March 1839. She died on 7 August 1867 at Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany and was interred at Villierstown, County Waterford, Ireland.

Career Villiers-Stuart served in the Austrian Imperial Army from 1844 to 1846. He was in the British Army from 1846 to 1847 as an Ensign in the 20th Regiment of Foot. He afterwards attended University College, Durham and took his BA at Durham University in 1850, graduating with a second-class degree in Classics.

1850–1885 He was ordained in the Church of England and served as Vicar of Bulkington, Warwickshire from 1852 to 1855, and of Napton from 1855 to 1871, when he resigned Holy Orders to pursue a political career and was successfully returned to Parliament for County Waterford in 1873, representing the Liberal Party.

Travels and Egyptology

Stuart travelled extensively, and published many accounts of his wanderings, notably Adventures amid the Equatorial Forests and Rivers of South America (1891). He was in South America in 1858, in Jamaica in 1881, and he made several journeys through Egypt, and published various works on ancient and modern Egypt.

The Durham University Journal noted in their obituary of Villiers-Stuart that The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen was one of his more popular books. He also visited a canopy amidst the royal mummeries, recently discovered by Emile Brugsch, that formed the funeral tent of Queen Isi em Kheb, the mother-in-law of Shishak, and inspired the title of the book. He was a member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology.

Personal life Villiers-Stuart married Mary Power, the daughter of Ambrose Power, Archdeacon of Lismore, in 1865. They had five sons and four daughters. He died in October 1895, aged 68, after falling and drowning off Villierstown Quay, near his residence at Dromana, Waterford, having slipped while attempting to enter his boat. His wife survived him by twelve years, dying in September 1907. His youngest son, Patrick Villiers-Stuart, married the author and painter Constance Fielden.

Publications Eve of the Deluge. London, 1851. Nile Gleanings: concerning the ethnology, history and art of Ancient Egypt as revealed by Egyptian paintings and bas-reliefs. London, 1879. The Funeral Tent of an Egyptian Queen. London, 1882. Egypt after the War: being the narrative of a tour of inspection (undertaken last Autumn) including experiences among the natives, with descriptions of their homes and habits. London, 1883. Adventures amidst the Equatorial Forests and Rivers of South America. London, 1891