Hompesch 17.11.1799 at John King's. In Godwin's 1796 list for 1799
Probably Charles Theodore Joseph Anton Baron Hompesch (will PCC 1812 formerly of Bollheim Westphalia but late of Rosenau, Datchet, Bucks, Lt General in British Service) of the Hungarian nobility. Served in Trinidad and St Domingo 1797 where his regiment of hussars was reduced by fever from 1100 to 300 men. His 2nd batallion sailed from Cowes to Cork 13.4.1798. On 4.7.1801 he took part in a sailing match on the Thames. Lived at Nine Elms, Battersea Fields where his natural only daughter shot herself July 1801, having requested that her heart be sent to a friend in Germany, she (Charlotte Olivia) was buried at Newington Church Yard 10.7.1801 (Morning Post 16.7.1801). He was a witness (signed Baron Lt Genl Charly Hompesch) at the wedding of Augustus Butler Danvers (qv) 17.5.1802 with Eliza Sturt at St Marylebone. The Morning Post of 23.9.1806 reported a duel at Blackheath where Baron Hompesch nearly fatally wounded a young man of 26, Mr Richardson of Colchester. One report suggested Butler-Danvers was his second. The duel supposedly came about because Hompesch was near-sighted and always wore spectacles, and blundered into the young man who was walking with a lady on each arm. In August 1807 Baron Hompesch challenged the lawyer William Garrow DNB 1760-1840 to a duel (Morning Post 28.11.1807) but was put under legal restraint and eventually fined £500 for an obscene libel on a Kentish farmer's wife who had sent to bring her husband home from drinking at Hompesch's (Morning Post 18.3.1808). A satirical print on this affair was issued by S W Fores. The will of Charles Hompesch dated 3.6.1812 and proved 24.6.1812 revoked a will of 2.8.1811 in which he had left legacies to Mrs Catherine Richardson and Miss Charlotte Richardson, as they had abandoned him, favouring instead Mrs Kerr and Miss Maria Kerr, now living with him, but left something to Charlotte's brother Robert (perhaps the man he nearly killed in a duel?) and even relented with a small legacy to Mrs & Miss Richardson for old time's sake. His main legatees were his brother Baron Ferdinand Hompesch and his sister Isabelle (will PCC 1848) who in 1804 had married George Richard St John 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke (will PCC 1825). Ferdinand Baron Hompesch was promoted to Maj Genl in the British Forces by 1803 and the newspapers didn't make clear which General Hompesch sailed in April 1808 in a private warship with 20 guns from Mevagissey and seized money from Danish charities in the Faroe islands. Perhaps not the bespectacled one, but when told he was taking funds meant for the upkeep of churches he was said to have replied they could be nearer to God on the mountaintops. Further confusion might arise from another Ferdinand Baron Hompesch who was Grand Master of the Knights of St John in Malta and surrendered Malta to Napoleon