On the 27 January 1773 Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, gave birth to her ninth child – and sixth son – Prince Augustus Frederick. Soon after his twenty-seventh birthday Augustus, and his younger brother, Prince Adolphus Frederick (born in February 1774) were made Dukes; the latter of Cambridge, the former of Sussex.
In 1818 there was a crisis within the Royal Family when the Prince Regent’s only child, Princess Charlotte, died. At that time there were four unmarried Dukes all of them living, more or less happily, with their respective mistresses. Pressure was brought to bear and during the course of the year there were four royal weddings. Sussex however refused to leave his mistress and the fourth marriage was that of his sister, 47 year-old Princess Elizabeth.
In 1832 Sussex created further unhappiness within the Royal household by siding with the ultra-radicals in their struggle for Parliamentary Reform, it was however this that doubtless endeared him to Plymothians prompting the subsequent naming of Sussex Street in a then developing part of town which included many royal references in its street nomenclature.
