Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley
Encyclopedia
Edward John Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley PC (13 November 1802 – 16 June 1869), known as The Lord Eddisbury between 1848 and 1850, was a British politician.
, and Lady Maria Josepha, daughter of John Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield.
as Whig
Member of Parliament
(MP) for Hindon
in 1831 and was later member for North Cheshire
between 1832 and 1841, and between 1847 and 1848. He served under Lord Melbourne
as Patronage Secretary to the Treasury from 1835 to 1841, as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
in 1841 and as Paymaster-General
in 1841 and under Lord John Russell
as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between 1846 and 1852. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1841 and in 1848, two years before he succeeded to the barony of Stanley
, he was created Baron Eddisbury, of Winnington in the County Palatine of Chester. He was later President of the Board of Trade under Palmerston from 1855 to 1858 and Postmaster-General
under Palmerston and then Russell from 1860 to 1866. In 1861 he established the Post Office Savings Bank.
, in 1826. Her ancestors had had pronounced Jacobite
leanings. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia
she was a great-great-great-great-granddaughter of King Charles II
by his mistress Barbara Villiers. Her grandmother, née Henrietta-Maria Phipps, was also a descendant of James II of England by Catherine Sedley. Another ancestor was Maréchal de camp
Count Arthur Dillon (1670–1733), a supporter of the "Old Pretender"
.
Before her marriage, she had lived in Florence
and had attended the receptions of the Countess of Albany
, the widow of Charles Edward, the Young Pretender
. In London
, she had great influence in social and political circles. When he was Patronage Secretary, her husband was described by Lord Palmerston as joint-whip
with Mrs Stanley. Later in life, Lady Stanley of Alderley helped to found the Women's Liberal Unionist Association; and she was a strenuous worker for the higher education of women, helping to establish Girton College, Cambridge
, the Girls' Public Day School Trust
, and the Medical College for Women.
Lord and Lady Stanley of Alderley had ten children:
Lord Stanley of Alderley died in June 1869, aged 66, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry. Lady Stanley of Alderley died in February 1895, aged 87.
In the 1930s his family's letters were published by his descendant Nancy Mitford
as:
Background
Stanley was the son of John Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of AlderleyJohn Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley
John Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley of Alderley , known as Sir John Stanley, 7th Baronet, from 1807 to 1839, was a British peer and politician....
, and Lady Maria Josepha, daughter of John Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield.
Political career
Stanley entered the House of CommonsBritish 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 Whig
British Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
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,...
(MP) for Hindon
Hindon (UK Parliament constituency)
Hindon was a parliamentary borough consisting of the village of Hindon in Wiltshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1448 until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act...
in 1831 and was later member for North Cheshire
North Cheshire (UK Parliament constituency)
North Cheshire is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was created upon the division of Cheshire in 1832. In 1868, it was abolished with South Cheshire to form East Cheshire, Mid Cheshire, West Cheshire and Stalybridge....
between 1832 and 1841, and between 1847 and 1848. He served under Lord Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, PC, FRS was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary and Prime Minister . He is best known for his intense and successful mentoring of Queen Victoria, at ages 18-21, in the ways of politics...
as Patronage Secretary to the Treasury from 1835 to 1841, as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
-Non-permanent and parliamentary under-secretaries, 1782-present:*April 1782: Evan Nepean*April 1782: Thomas Orde*July 1782: Henry Strachey*April 1783: George North*February 1784: Hon. John Townshend*June 1789: Scrope Bernard*July 1794: The Hon...
in 1841 and as Paymaster-General
Paymaster-General
HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the United Kingdom. The Paymaster General is in charge of the Office of HM Paymaster General , which held accounts at the Bank of England on behalf of Government departments and selected other public bodies...
in 1841 and under Lord John Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....
as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs between 1846 and 1852. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1841 and in 1848, two years before he succeeded to the barony of Stanley
Baron Stanley of Alderley
Baron Stanley of Alderley, in the County of Chester, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1839 for the politician and landowner Sir John Stanley, 7th Baronet....
, he was created Baron Eddisbury, of Winnington in the County Palatine of Chester. He was later President of the Board of Trade under Palmerston from 1855 to 1858 and Postmaster-General
United Kingdom Postmaster General
The Postmaster General of the United Kingdom is a defunct Cabinet-level ministerial position in HM Government. Aside from maintaining the postal system, the Telegraph Act of 1868 established the Postmaster General's right to exclusively maintain electric telegraphs...
under Palmerston and then Russell from 1860 to 1866. In 1861 he established the Post Office Savings Bank.
Family
Lord Stanley of Alderley married Henrietta Maria (21 December 1807 – 16 February 1895), a daughter of Viscount DillonHenry Dillon, 13th Viscount Dillon
Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee, 13th Viscount Dillon was an Irish peer, writer and MP for Harwich and for County Mayo.His daughter Henrietta Maria married Edward John Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley.- Biography :...
, in 1826. Her ancestors had had pronounced Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
leanings. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
she was a great-great-great-great-granddaughter of King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
by his mistress Barbara Villiers. Her grandmother, née Henrietta-Maria Phipps, was also a descendant of James II of England by Catherine Sedley. Another ancestor was Maréchal de camp
Field Marshal (France)
Maréchal de camp was a general officer rank used by the French Army until 1848.The rank originated from the older rank of sergeant major general . Sergeant Major General was third in command in an army, after the General and the Lieutenant General. One of his tasks was to dispose the troops on the...
Count Arthur Dillon (1670–1733), a supporter of the "Old Pretender"
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...
.
Before her marriage, she had lived in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
and had attended the receptions of the Countess of Albany
Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern
Princess Louise Maximilienne Caroline Emmanuele of Stolberg-Gedern was the wife of the Jacobite claimant to the English and Scottish thrones Charles Edward Stuart...
, the widow of Charles Edward, the Young Pretender
Charles Edward Stuart
Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...
. In London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, she had great influence in social and political circles. When he was Patronage Secretary, her husband was described by Lord Palmerston as joint-whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
with Mrs Stanley. Later in life, Lady Stanley of Alderley helped to found the Women's Liberal Unionist Association; and she was a strenuous worker for the higher education of women, helping to establish Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. It was England's first residential women's college, established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon. The full college status was only received in 1948 and marked the official admittance of women to the...
, the Girls' Public Day School Trust
Girls' Day School Trust
The Girls' Day School Trust is a group of 26 independent schools - 24 schools and two Academies - in England and Wales, catering for pupils aged 3 to 18. It is the largest group of independent schools in the UK, and educates 20,000 girls each year...
, and the Medical College for Women.
Lord and Lady Stanley of Alderley had ten children:
- Henry Edward John, 3rd Baron Stanley of AlderleyHenry Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of AlderleyHenry Edward John Stanley, 3rd Baron Stanley of Alderley and 2nd Baron Eddisbury was a historian who translated The first voyage round the world by Magellan and other works from the Age of Discovery...
(1827–1903) - Hon. Alice Margaret (1828–1910) married Augustus Pitt RiversAugustus Pitt RiversLieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers was an English army officer, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for his innovations in archaeological methods, and in the museum display of archaeological and ethnological collections.-Life and career:Born Augustus Henry Lane-Fox at...
- Hon. (Henrietta) Blanche (1830–1921) married David, 10th Earl of AirlieDavid Ogilvy, 10th Earl of AirlieDavid Graham Drummond Ogilvy, 10th Earl of Airlie KT, DL , styled Lord Ogilvy from birth until 1849, was a Scottish peer.-Background and education:...
; a grandmother of Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
's wife, ClementineClementine Churchill, Baroness Spencer-ChurchillClementine Ogilvy Spencer-Churchill, Baroness Spencer-Churchill, GBE, CStJ was the wife of Sir Winston Churchill and a life peeress in her own right.-Early life:...
, and a great-grandmother of the Mitford sistersMitford familyThe Mitford family is a minor aristocratic English family that traces its origins in Northumberland back to the time of the Norman conquest. In the Middle Ages they had been Border Reivers based in Redesdale. The main family line had seats at Mitford Castle, Mitford Old Manor House and from 1828... - Hon. Maude Alethea (1832–1915)
- Hon. Cecilia (d. 1839)
- Hon. John Constantine (1837–78)
- Edward Lyulph Stanley, 4th Baron Stanley of AlderleyEdward Stanley, 4th Baron Stanley of AlderleyEdward Lyulph Stanley, 4th Baron Sheffield, 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley and 3rd Baron Eddisbury PC was an English peer.He was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford....
(1839–1925), married Mary Bell, daughter of Sir Lowthian Bell, Bt - Hon. Algernon Charles (1843–1928), Roman Catholic Bishop of Emmaus (in partibusTitular seeA titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular bishop", "titular metropolitan", or "titular archbishop"....
) - Hon. Katherine Louisa (1844–74) married John Russell, Viscount AmberleyJohn Russell, Viscount AmberleyJohn Russell, Viscount Amberley was the eldest son of John Russell, 1st Earl Russell. As such, from 1861 he took his father's junior title of Viscount Amberley, but he did not live to inherit the earldom; this passed, after his death, to his eldest son John Francis Stanley Russell, 2nd Earl Russell...
; mother of the philosopher Bertrand RussellBertrand RussellBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
(a noted agnostic) - Hon. Rosalind Frances (1845–1921), as Rosalind Howard, Countess of CarlisleRosalind Howard, Countess of CarlisleRosalind Frances Howard, Countess of Carlisle , sometimes known as The Radical Countess, was a British aristocrat and campaigner....
, became the chatelaine of Castle HowardCastle HowardCastle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, north of York. One of the grandest private residences in Britain, most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh...
and a radical temperance campaigner.
Lord Stanley of Alderley died in June 1869, aged 66, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry. Lady Stanley of Alderley died in February 1895, aged 87.
In the 1930s his family's letters were published by his descendant Nancy Mitford
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
as:
- The Ladies of Alderley: Letters 1841–1850 (Hamish Hamilton, 1938)
- The Stanleys of Alderley: Their letters 1851–1865 (Chapman & Hall, 1939)