George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, (; 11 May 1749 – 10 April 1827), styled Viscount Malpas between 1764 and 1770 and known as The Earl of Cholmondeley between 1770 and 1815, was a British peer and politician.
Background and education
Cholmondeley was the son of
George Cholmondeley, Viscount Malpas, and Hester Edwardes.
George Cholmondeley, 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley, was his grandfather.
He was a direct descendant of
Sir Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leade ...
, the first
Prime Minister of Great Britain
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...
. He was educated at
Eton.
In January 1776, Cholmondeley began an affair with the noted beauty
Grace Dalrymple Elliot, allegedly taking her up during a Pantheon masquerade ball. Grace was legally separated from her husband, Dr. John Eliot, who was to divorce her several months later. This liaison lasted for three years.
Career
In 1770 he succeeded his grandfather as fourth Earl of Cholmondeley and entered the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...
. In April 1783, Cholmondeley was admitted to the
Privy Council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mo ...
and appointed
Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard in the government of the
Duke of Portland, a post he held until December the same year. He remained out of office for the next 29 years, but in 1812 he was made
Lord Steward of the Household in
Spencer Perceval's
Tory administration. He continued in the post after
Lord Liverpool became Prime Minister after Perceval's assassination in May 1812, holding it until 1821.
In 1815, Cholmondeley was created Earl of Rocksavage, in the County of Chester, and Marquess of Cholmondeley. He was further honoured when he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the
Royal Guelphic Order
The Royal Guelphic Order (german: Königliche Guelphen-Orden), sometimes referred to as the Hanoverian Guelphic Order, is a Hanoverian order of chivalry instituted on 28 April 1815 by the Prince Regent (later King George IV). It takes its name ...
(Hanoverian Order) in 1819
and a
Knight of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...
in 1822. Apart from his political career, he was also
Lord-Lieutenant of Cheshire from 1770 to 1783 and
Vice-Admiral of Cheshire from 1770 to 1827.
Cholmondeley Sound, in
southeast Alaska
Southeast Alaska, colloquially referred to as the Alaska(n) Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia (and a small part ...
, was named for him in 1793 by
George Vancouver
Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what are ...
.
Personal life
Lord Cholmondeley married
Lady Georgiana Charlotte Bertie,
daughter of
Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, on 25 April 1791. Through this marriage the ancient hereditary office of
Lord Great Chamberlain
The Lord Great Chamberlain of England is the sixth of the Great Officers of State, ranking beneath the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal and above the Lord High Constable. The Lord Great Chamberlain has charge over the Palace of Westminster (tho ...
came into the Cholmondeley family.
They had three children:
*
George Horatio Cholmondeley, 2nd Marquess of Cholmondeley (16 Jan 1792 - 8 May 1870)
*
William Henry Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Marquess of Cholmondeley (31 Mar 1800 - 16 Dec 1884)
*Lady Charlotte Georgiana (d. 24 June 1828) married
Lt.-Col. Hugh Henry Seymour, son of
Adm. Lord Hugh Seymour, on 18 May 1818.
Before his marriage to Georgiana, Lord Cholmondeley had had a mistress, Madame St-Albin, and with her had one daughter,
Harriet Cholmondeley
Harriet Cholmondeley (c.1790 – 11 July 1815), sometimes called "Lady" or "The Hon" Harriet Cholmondeley, was the first wife of John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham.
She was an illegitimate daughter of George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholm ...
.
He inherited
Houghton Hall
Houghton Hall ( ) is a country house in the parish of Houghton in Norfolk, England. It is the residence of David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley.
It was commissioned by the ''de facto'' first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Wa ...
in Norfolk from his great-uncle
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whig politician.
He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twi ...
in 1797 but preferred to live at
Cholmondeley Castle
Cholmondeley Castle ( ) is a country house in the civil parish of Cholmondeley, Cheshire, England. Together with its adjacent formal gardens, it is surrounded by parkland. The site of the house has been a seat of the Cholmondeley family since ...
in Cheshire, which had been rebuilt in 1801-04 to his design.
He was friends with the disreputable courtesans
Gertrude Mahon,
Grace Elliott
Grace Dalrymple Elliott (c. 1754 – 16 May 1823) was a Scottish courtesan, writer and spy resident in Paris during the French Revolution. She was an eyewitness to events detailed in her memoirs, ''Journal of my life during the French Revo ...
and
Kitty Frederick. According to the betting book for
Brooks's, a London
gentlemen's club, Cholmondeley once wagered two guineas to
Lord Derby, to receive 500 guineas upon having sexual intercourse with a woman "in a balloon one thousand yards from the Earth." It is unknown whether the bet was ever finalised.
Lord Cholmondeley died at age 77 in April 1827, and he was succeeded in his lands, estates and titles by his eldest son George. Lady Cholmondeley died in 1838.
Eighteenth-century English Studies professor and
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
Arthur Sherbo nominated Lord Cholmondeley as the likely real-life inspiration for the character of Rawdon Crawley in
William Makepeace Thackeray's satirical novel
''Vanity Fair''.
Notes
References
* Debrett, John, Charles Kidd, David Williamson. (1990)
''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage.''New York:
Macmillan
MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to:
People
* McMillan (surname)
* Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan
* Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician
* James MacMillan, Scottish composer
* William Duncan MacMillan ...
.
* Lodge, Edmund. (1877)
''The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire as at Present Existing.''London: Hurst and Blackett
OCLC 17221260
External links
*
Cholmondeley Castle*
Oil_painting_of_''Mrs._Grace_Dalrymple_Elliott''_by_Thomas_Gainsborough_(British,_1727–1788),_which_was_"apparently_commissioned_by_her_lover,_the_first_Marquess_of_Cholmondeley,_and_was_exhibited_at_the_Academy_in_1778."
.html" ;"title="Metropolitan Museum of Art
Oil painting of ''Mrs. Grace Dalrymple Elliott'' by Thomas Gainsborough (British, 1727–1788), which was "apparently commissioned by her lover, the first Marquess of Cholmondeley, and was exhibited at the Academy in 1778."
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Knights of the Garter
Lord-Lieutenants of Cheshire
Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain
Cholmondeley family, George
Marquesses of Cholmondeley, 1
People educated at Eton College