Sir Nigel Kingscote. 
3 
Norman Conquest. In the reign of Henry the Second, Adam 
de Kingscote obtained a confirmation (1188 A.D.) from his 
uncle, Lord Maurice Fitzhardinge, of the manor of Kingscote, 
which his father, Nigell Fitz-Arthur, had received as dower 
from his wife, Adeva, daughter of Robert Fitzhardinge, 
grandson of Sueno, the third King of Denmark, by Eva, niece 
of William the Conqueror. It is a family tradition that the 
domain so obtained is to this day exactly the same in size as 
when its dimensions were recorded in Domesday Book. 
The head of the house a century ago was Robert Kingscote, 
a bachelor, who himself had succeeded a childless uncle. 
Robert was followed in February, 1840, by a nephew, Thomas 
Heni’y Kingscote, born January 19, 1799. Thomas Kingscote, 
who was a strikingly handsome and powerful man, G feet 
6 inches high, and was considered the best heavy-weight 
rider in the Badminton Hunt, married in 1828 Lady Isabella 
Somerset, sixth daughter of Henry, sixth Duke of Beaufort. 
Lady Isabella was under twenty years of age when she 
married, and was only twenty-two when she died on 
February 4, 1831, less than a year after the birth, on 
February 28, 1830, of a son, who was christened Robert Nigel 
Fitzhardinge. Thomas Kingscote married again in June, 1833, 
and by his second wife, the eldest daughter of the first Lord 
Bloomfield, he had five sons and three daughters. 
Of the early days of young Nigel Kingscote not much is 
recorded, but from his earliest youth he was a good rider and 
fond of field sports. He did not go to any public school, but 
got most of his education at a private academy near 
Weymouth, after which he went abroad for a year with a 
tutor. At the early age of sixteen he obtained, doubtless 
through the influence of his maternal great-uncle, Lord 
Fitzroy Somerset (afterwards Lord Raglan), a commission in 
the Scots Fusilier Guards. He became Ensign and Lieutenant 
in that historic regiment on October 27, 1846, was promoted 
to be Lieutenant and Captain on June 28, 1850, and on the 
breaking out in 1854 of hostilities with Russia, was selected 
by his great-uncle, now Lord Raglan and Commander-in-Chief, 
to accompany him to the Crimea as one of his aides-de-camp. 
It should be mentioned that at this time Captain Kingscote was 
a widower. He had married on March 13, 1851, Caroline, 
daughter of Colonel Wyndham (afterwards the first Lord 
Leconfield), but she had died in 1852, leaving no issue. 
As to his experiences in the Crimea there is not much to 
be said. It is obvious from Kinglake’s 1 three references to 
him that he was in close and devoted attendance on his 
relative, the Commander-in-Chief, and did his best to help in 
1 Invasion of the Crimea, Vol. V., 389 ; Vol. VI., 208. 341. 
