Christopher Carlisle
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| Portrayed by Rupert Friend | |
| Full Name | Christopher Fitzgerald Carlisle |
|---|---|
| Title | Mr Carlisle |
| Associated Noble House(s) | Only distant connections |
| Date of Birth | 2 January 1780 |
| Father | Christopher Carlisle I (deceased) |
| Father's Rank | Gentry |
| Mother | Anne Carlisle (deceased) |
| Mother's Rank | Gentry |
| Town Residence | The Ellery, Hanover Square |
| Income | Sufficient but heir apparent to a large inheritance. |
| School | Eton |
| University | Oxford. |
Christopher "Kit" Carlisle is a trained medical practitioner turned heir apparent to his uncle's, obscenely large fortune. He is the grandson of the 7th Earl of Rotherham.
Kit was named Christopher for his father and Fitzgerald for his mother. There could only be one Christopher in the house at a time and so he quickly became Kit. The nickname has proved hard to shake.
Kit Carlisle is played by Alex
Relations
Both of Kit's parents passed away young. He and his much younger sister were raised by their wealthy cousins, the Ellesmeres. He has one sister, Josephine Carlisle and an extensive array of cousins.
Ellesmere cousins
Aunt: Jane Ellesmere
Uncle: Anthony Ellesmere
Cousin: Nathaniel Ellesmere
Cousin: Elinor Knowles née Ellesmere
Cousin: Prosperity Ellesmere
Cousin: Patience Ellesmere
Cousin: Annie Ellesmere
Fitzgerald cousins
Uncle: Richard Fitzgerald, Earl of Rotherham
Aunt: Madeleine Fitzgerald, Countess of Rotherham
Cousin: Viola Fitzgerald
Cousin: Olivia Fitzgerald
Cousin: Richard Fitzgerald
Cousin: Robert Fitzgerald
Early Life
Kit and his younger sister enjoyed a sunny, ordinary childhood until 1792 when it took a tumultuous turn. The siblings were orphaned when Kit was eleven and his baby sister was a delicate one year old. They were immediately whisked south to Hampshire and taken in by their father’s sister, Jane Ellesmere, her husband Anthony Ellesmere, and their well-to-do family of five young children. Kit found the change very hard. He saw his new “family” only over the term breaks and mostly dreaded those long, dragging dull weeks. The little girls failed to interest him in the slightest and cousin Nathaniel’s hero worship soon soured to prickly hostility when it became clear that Kit wanted nothing to do with him either.
Escape to university to study medicine was paradise.
Time in Bath
After university Kit spent time 'working' (in the way that only the truly rich can do ie when it suited him), studying and occasionally mingling in Society, mostly in Bath. The 'healing' focus of the Town pleased the medical practitioner in him and he thoroughly enjoyed conversing with some of the best scientific minds in England when they were to be founds in the city's clubs and inns and parlours.
Time in London
Fourteen years on, Little Cousin Nathaniel has grown into an gregarious and impetuous irrepressibly romantic soul… who secretly and scandalously married his mother’s ladies’ maid, Meg Wick – the impoverished daughter of absolutely no one in particular. This little revelation shook the very foundations of the Ellesmere house in 1810.
With that Cousin Nathaniel been disinherited and vanished – presumably to the Continent if his cocky parting “Ciao, Papa” was anything to judge by – Kit was summoned to London to fill his boots. Anthony Ellesmere has built himself somewhat of an impressive fortune and the idea of leaving this world without a suitable heir to it all appalls him. For his part, Kit is yet to decide if this turn of events has been a blessing or a curse.
During time spent in London last year Kit made the acquaintance of Georgiana Haworth and her firends and has since had to review his initial opinion that all London women were silly, vacuous creatures.
He is currently residing the Ellesmere residence, The Ellery, and very keenly hunting a place of his own (though he is mildly reluctant to leave his sister Josie during her debut Season.)
Nature
Kit is a straight forward creature in some respects: he is highly logical without a trace of sentimentality nor of superstition. If asked – which he never is – he would define himself as an empiricist and sympathize with Scottish philosopher, Hume: we cannot know with certainty that the sun will continue to rise in the East, but instead come to expect it to do so because it has repeatedly done so in the past.
This approach to has rendered him somewhat of an unpopular dinner guest among the more precious members of society. He will not tolerate fools. He will not tolerate bravado. If you commit to putting a sentence into words, he may well insist you back it up with an appropriate argument. As might already be clear, Kit sometimes struggles with the pointless niceties and meaningless small talk polite society requires though he has no desire to be thought impolite (quite the opposite), the need for such things bemuses him.Also along those lines, he finds modesty somewhat baffling: if one is intelligent/rich/attractive why not embrace it? The same is not true when it comes to flaws - these he will happily not mention. However, he is silently very hard on himself and subjects others to the same treatment.
Kit is far from shy, but does not crave social contact the way some do. Time alone nourishes this soul as time in the limelight does to some others. Quietly, he has a sincere interest in biology and spends a great deal of time reading any journal available to him. Such bizarre interests do not sit well with his aunt and uncle and, as it is for them that he now returns to Town to play nice and show face at all the right events, this interest is not one he speak much of.
His passions run to the study of all natural things and to archery. He has excellent hand eye co-ordinations (just ask him.)
Appearance
Christopher looks nothing like his father, nor his sister. He inherited a blend of Fitzgerald genes and something else less easily pinned down, rendering him of average to tall height with strong features, sandy hair that's neither brown nor blonde, brown eyes and those quizzical Fitzgerald brows.