Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton


Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton was a British Army officer who served in the Seven Years' War and a politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1759 to 1780 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Southampton.
The second son of Lord Augustus FitzRoy and a grandson of the 2nd Duke of Grafton, FitzRoy joined the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards as an ensign in 1752. He fought at the Battles of Minden and Kirchdenkern during the Seven Years' War and rose to the ranks of Captain in 1756 and Lieutenant-Colonel in 1758.
He was a Groom of the Bedchamber from 1760–62 and Whig MP for Orford from 1759–61, for Bury St Edmunds from 1761–74 and for Thetford from 1774–80. On leaving the post of Queen Charlotte's Vice-Chamberlain in 1780, he was created Baron Southampton on 17 October 1780 and was succeeded by his eldest son, George, upon his death in 1797.

Family

On 27 July 1758, FitzRoy married Anne Warren, the daughter and co-heir of Adml. Sir Peter Warren and a descendant of the Schuyler family, the Van Cortlandt family, and the Delancey family, all from British North America. They later had eleven children, among which:
Fitzroy Road on the west side of Manhattan was named after Charles Fitzroy. The road follows the route of present-day Eighth Avenue. It was named for Fitzroy after land along its route was given to his father-in-law. The street was decommissioned in the 1830s. In memory of this road, the luxury condominium building at 514 West 24th Street is named The Fitzroy.