Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood (1713, Barbados

Barbados

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...

 - 25 January 1795) was a West Indian plantation owner of English ancestry.

Life

He was the son of Henry Lascelles

Henry Lascelles (1690-1753)

Henry Lascelles was an English-born Barbados plantation owner. He was the son of Daniel Lascelles and Margaret Metcalfe. He was a director of the British East India Company and MP for Northallerton...

 (1690-1753) and Mary Carter. His father split the family fortune leaving Edwin's elder brother Daniel as head of the business whilst raising Edwin as a lord of the manor over their English estates. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

 and on a European Grand Tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

, before fighting against the Jacobites

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...

 (1745) and entering Parliament as MP for Scarborough

Scarborough (UK Parliament constituency)

Scarborough was the name of a constituency in Yorkshire, electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons, at two periods. From 1295 until 1918 it was a parliamentary borough consisting only of the town of Scarborough, electing two MPs until 1885 and one from 1885 until 1918...

 from 1744 to 1754. He was later MP for Yorkshire

Yorkshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Yorkshire was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England from 1290, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832...

 from 1761 to 1780 and for Northallerton

Northallerton (UK Parliament constituency)

Northallerton was a parliamentary borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire, represented by two Members of Parliament in the House of Commons briefly in the 13th century and again from 1640 to 1832, and by one member from 1832 until 1885....

 from 1780 to 1790 (inheriting the latter seat from his father Henry and his brother Daniel). By 1748 Edwin was installed as Lord of the Manor of Harewood and he built Harewood House

Harewood House

Harewood House is a country house located in Harewood , near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is a member of Treasure Houses of England, a marketing consortium for nine of the foremost stately homes in England...

 from 1759 to 1771.

On Daniel's death childless in 1784 and their only other sibling Henry's death two years later, Edwin was left in sole charge of the fortune, to which he added 22 working plantations, more than 27000 acres (109.3 km²) of West Indian property and 2,947 slaves surrendered to planters' creditors as the planters defaulted on debts because of the American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

, worth £293,000 (about £28.3 million today). A great many planters depended on their sale of sugar and molasses to the American colonies for income.

He was made Baron Harewood on 9 July 1790 but died childless and the title became extinct. The fortune passed to Edward Lascelles

Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood

Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood was a British peer and Member of Parliament.Harewood was the son of Edward Lascelles, a customs officer in Barbados. On the death of the childless Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood Edward inherited the Lascelles family fortune, made in the West Indies...

 (1740-1820), 1st Earl of Harewood.

Marriages

He was first married to Elizabeth Dawes, daughter of Sir Darcy Dawes, 4th Baronet, on 5 January 1746/47. His second marriage was to Lady Jane Fleming, daughter of William Coleman and Jane Seymour, and widow of Sir John Fleming, 1st Baronet

Sir John Fleming, 1st Baronet

Sir John Fleming, 1st Baronet was an English baronet, created first Baronet Fleming of Brompton Park, Middlesex in the Baronetage of Great Britain on 22 April 1763....

, on 31 March 1770.

External links

• thePeerage.com
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/articles/2007/02/22/abolition_harewood_house_feature.shtml