Earl of Harrowby, in the County of Lincoln, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom

Peerage of the United Kingdom

The Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain...

. It was created in 1809 for the prominent politician and former Foreign Secretary

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...

, Dudley Ryder, 2nd Baron Harrowby

Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby

Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby, PC, FSA was a prominent British politician of the Pittite faction and the Tory party.-Background and education:...

. He was made Viscount Sandon, of Sandon in the County of Stafford, at the same time, which title is used as a courtesy title

Courtesy title

A courtesy title is a form of address in systems of nobility used for children, former wives and other close relatives of a peer. These styles are used 'by courtesy' in the sense that the relatives do not themselves hold substantive titles...

 by the heir apparent to the earldom. His son, the second Earl, held office under Lord Palmerston

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston

Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, KG, GCB, PC , known popularly as Lord Palmerston, was a British statesman who served twice as Prime Minister in the mid-19th century...

 as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is, in modern times, a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom that includes as part of its duties, the administration of the estates and rents of the Duchy of Lancaster...

 and Lord Privy Seal

Lord Privy Seal

The Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the traditional sinecure offices of state...

. He was succeeded by his eldest son, the third Earl. He was a Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician and notably served as President of the Board of Trade from 1878 to 1880.

His nephew, the fifth Earl (who succeeded his father in 1900), briefly represented Gravesend

Gravesend (UK Parliament constituency)

Gravesend was a county constituency centred on the town of Gravesend, Kent which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1868 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election....

 in the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 as a Conservative and was also Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire

Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire

This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant for Staffordshire. Since 1828, all Lord Lieutenants have also been Custos Rotulorum of Staffordshire.-Lord Lieutenants of Staffordshire:*Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford 1559...

. His son, the sixth Earl, sat as Conservative Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Shrewsbury was a parliamentary constituency in England, centred on the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire.It was founded in 1290 as parliamentary borough, returning two members to the House of Commons of England until 1707, then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and of the...

. the titles are held by the latter's grandson, the eighth Earl, who succeeded his father in 2007.

The title of Baron Harrowby, of Harrowby in the County of Lincoln, was created in the Peerage of Great Britain

Peerage of Great Britain

The Peerage of Great Britain comprises all extant peerages created in the Kingdom of Great Britain after the Act of Union 1707 but before the Act of Union 1800...

 in 1776 for Nathaniel Ryder

Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby

Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby was a British peer and Member of Parliament.Harrowby was the son of Sir Dudley Ryder, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He was elected to the House of Commons for Tiverton in 1756, a seat he held until 1776. On 20 May 1776 he was raised to the peerage as...

, who had previously represented Tiverton

Tiverton (UK Parliament constituency)

Tiverton was a constituency located in east Devon, formerly represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Enfranchised as a parliamentary borough in 1615 and first represented in 1621, it elected two Members of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

 in Parliament. He was the son of Sir Dudley Ryder

Dudley Ryder (judge)

Sir Dudley Ryder was a British politician, judge and diarist.-Career:The son of a draper, Ryder studied at a dissenting academy in Hackney and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and Leiden University in The Netherlands. He went to the Middle Temple in 1713 and was called to the Bar in 1719...

, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1754 to 1756. Dudley Ryder was offered a peerage by King George II

George II of Great Britain

George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...

 on 24 May 1756, but died the following day, before the patent was completed. Lord Harrowby was succeeded by his son, the aforementioned second Baron, who was created Earl of Harrowby in 1809. The Ryders derive their name and their coat-of-arms from the Ryther family of Ryther, Yorkshire.

Several other members of the Ryder family may also be mentioned. The Hon. Richard Ryder

Richard Ryder (19th century politician)

Richard Ryder PC was a British Tory politician. He notably served as Home Secretary between 1809 and 1812.-Background:...

, second son of the first Baron Harrowby, was Home Secretary

Home Secretary

The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...

 between 1809 and 1812. The Right Reverend the Hon. Henry Ryder

Henry Ryder

The Right Reverend the Hon. Henry Dudley Ryder was a prominent English Evangelical Anglican clergyman in the early years of the nineteenth century...

, youngest son of the first Baron, was Bishop of Gloucester

Bishop of Gloucester

The Bishop of Gloucester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Gloucester in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the County of Gloucestershire and part of the County of Worcestershire and has its see in the City of Gloucester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church...

 from 1815 to 1824 and Bishop of Lichfield

Bishop of Lichfield

The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 4,516 km² of the counties of Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West Midlands. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed...

 from 1824 to 1836. His second son George Dudley Ryder was the father of 1) Sir George Lisle Ryder, KCB (d. 1905), and 2) the Very Reverend Henry Ignatius Dudley Ryder

Henry Ignatius Dudley Ryder

Henry Ignatius Dudley Ryder was an English Roman Catholic priest of the Birmingham Oratory and controversialist.-Life:...

. Henry Ryder's fifth son Sir Alfred Phillips Ryder

Alfred Phillips Ryder

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Phillips Ryder KCB was a Royal Navy officer and an active member of the Church of England Purity Society.-Biography:...

 was an Admiral of the Fleet

Admiral of the Fleet

An admiral of the fleet is a military naval officer of the highest rank. In many nations the rank is reserved for wartime or ceremonial appointments...

. Charles Henry Dudley Ryder (1868–1945), third son of Lieutenant-Colonel Spencer Charles Dudley Ryder (1825–1873), sixth son of Henry Ryder, was a Colonel in the Royal Engineers

Royal Engineers

The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....

. His third son Robert Ryder was a soldier and Conservative politician. The Hon. Granville Ryder

Granville Ryder (1799–1879)

The Hon. Granville Dudley Ryder JP , was a British Tory politician.Ryder was the second son of Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby, by his wife Lady Susan, daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford. He initially served in the Royal Navy and achieved the rank of Lieutenant...

, second son of the first Earl, sat as Member of Parliament for Tiverton and Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Hertfordshire was a county constituency covering the county of Hertfordshire in England. It returned two Knights of the Shire to the House of Commons of England until 1707, then to the House of Commons of Great Britain until 1800, and to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

. His eldest son Dudley Henry Ryder is the great-grandfather of the psychologist and animal welfare campaigner Richard D. Ryder

Richard D. Ryder

Richard Hood Jack Dudley Ryder is a British psychologist. He is a former Mellon Professor at Tulane University, New Orleans. He served as chairman of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Council from 1977 to 1979, and is a past president of Britain's Liberal Democrat Animal...

. Granville Ryder's second son and namesake Granville Ryder

Granville Ryder (1833–1901)

Granville Richard Ryder was a British Conservative Party politician.Ryder was the second son of the Hon. Granville Ryder, second son of Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby. His mother was Lady Georgiana Augusta, daughter of Henry Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort. He was educated at the University of...

 was Member of Parliament for Salisbury

Salisbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Salisbury is a county constituency centred on the city of Salisbury in Wiltshire. It elects one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, by the first past the post voting system....

.

The family seat is Sandon Hall

Sandon Hall

Sandon Hall is a 19th century country mansion, the seat of the Earl of Harrowby, at Sandon, Staffordshire, northeast of Stafford. It is a Grade II* listed building set in of parkland....

, near Stafford

Stafford

Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...

, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

. The family also resides at Burnt Norton house, a house made famous by the T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

 poem Burnt Norton

Burnt Norton

"Burnt Norton" is the first poem of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets. He created it while working on his play Murder in the Cathedral and it was first published in his Collected Poems 1909–1935 . The poem's title refers to a Cotswolds manor house Eliot visited. The manor's garden served as an important...

as is found in the Four Quartets.

Barons Harrowby (1776)

• Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby
  Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby
  Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby was a British peer and Member of Parliament.Harrowby was the son of Sir Dudley Ryder, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He was elected to the House of Commons for Tiverton in 1756, a seat he held until 1776. On 20 May 1776 he was raised to the peerage as...
  
   (1735–1803)
• Dudley Ryder, 2nd Baron Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby, PC, FSA was a prominent British politician of the Pittite faction and the Tory party.-Background and education:...
  
   (1762–1847) (created Earl of Harrowby in 1809)

Earls of Harrowby (1809)

• Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby, PC, FSA was a prominent British politician of the Pittite faction and the Tory party.-Background and education:...
  
   (1762–1847)
• Dudley Ryder, 2nd Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 2nd Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 2nd Earl of Harrowby KG, PC, FRS , styled Viscount Sandon between 1809 and 1847, was a British politician...
  
   (1798–1882)
• Dudley Francis Stuart Ryder, 3rd Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 3rd Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Francis Stuart Ryder, 3rd Earl of Harrowby PC, DL, JP , known as Viscount Sandon from 1847 to 1882, was a British peer and politician.-Political career:...
  
   (1831–1900)
• Henry Dudley Ryder, 4th Earl of Harrowby
  Henry Ryder, 4th Earl of Harrowby
  Henry Dudley Ryder, 4th Earl of Harrowby , was briefly a British peer, succeeding his brother as Earl of Harrowby on 26 March 1900, and dying nine months later....
  
   (1836–1900)
• John Herbert Dudley Ryder, 5th Earl of Harrowby
  John Ryder, 5th Earl of Harrowby
  John Herbert Dudley Ryder, 5th Earl of Harrowby , briefly known as Viscount Sandon from March to December 1900, was a British peer and Conservative Member of Parliament....
  
   (1864–1956)
• Dudley Ryder, 6th Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 6th Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 6th Earl of Harrowby , known as Viscount Sandon from 1900 to 1956, was a British peer and Conservative Member of Parliament....
  
   (1892–1987)
• Dudley Danvers Granville Coutts Ryder, 7th Earl of Harrowby (1922–2007)
• Dudley Adrian Conroy Ryder, 8th Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Ryder, 8th Earl of Harrowby
  Dudley Adrian Conroy Ryder, 8th Earl of Harrowby is a British aristocrat. He was known as Viscount Sandon from 1987 until 2007....
  
   (b. 1951)

The heir apparent

Heir apparent

An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....

is the present holder's eldest son Dudley Anthony Hugo Coventry Ryder, Viscount Sandon (b. 1981).