Christopher Carlisle

Christoper "Kit" Carlisle is a trained medical practitioner turned heir apparent to his uncle's large fortune. He is the grandson of the 20th 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

Portrayed by Rupert Friend
Full Name	Christopher Fitzgerald Carlisle
Title	n/a
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	{{{residence}}}
Income	Sufficient but heir apparent to a large inheritance.
School	Eton
University	Oxford.

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.

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.

Now that Cousin Nathaniel has been disinherited and vanished – presumably to the Continent if his cocky parting “Ciao, Papa” was anything to judge by – Kit has been 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.

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.

He has excellent hand eye co-ordinations (just ask him.)

London Connections

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.