Sir Gerard Noel Noel, 2nd Baronet (17 July 1759 – 25 February 1838), of Welham Grove in Leicestershire and Exton Park in Rutland, known as Gerard Edwardes until 1798, was an English

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

Background

Gerard Noel was born Gerard Edwardes at

Tickencote Tickencote is a small village and civil parish in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is noted for St Peter's Church, with its Norman chancel arch. The population at the 2001 census was 67. At the 2011 census the populatio ...

, Rutland, on 17 July 1759. He was the son of Gerard Edwardes of Welham Grove and Lady Jane Noel, daughter of Baptist Noel, 4th Earl of Gainsborough. His father was the illegitimate son of the tycoon Mary Edwardes and

Lord Anne Hamilton Lord Anne Hamilton (12 October 1709 – 25 December 1748) was a Scottish nobleman. He is said to have married the richest woman in the UK and they had a child. Early life Hamilton was born at St. James's Square, London, the third son of Lieute ...

, younger son of

James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton Lieutenant General James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton and 1st Duke of Brandon (11 April 1658 – 15 November 1712) was a Scottish nobleman, soldier and politician. Hamilton was a major investor in the failed Darien Scheme, which cost many o ...

. He was educated at Eton and St John's College, Cambridge.

Career

Noel became partner in a

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

banking house. He entered Parliament in 1784 as member for

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

. However, on the death of his cousin, Thomas Noel, MP for Rutland, he resigned so as to be elected for that county (where the Noels had regularly held one of the seats for centuries). He represented Rutland (in two spells) for well over forty years. Initially a supporter of

Pitt the Younger William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...

, he was one of a group of MPs who in 1788 tried to form a third party independent of both Pitt and

Charles James Fox Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the arch-riv ...

; in later years, however, he was a consistent

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

. In 1798 he inherited the estates of his uncle, Henry Noel, 6th Earl of Gainsborough (though not the peerage, which could not pass through the female line), and changed his surname to Noel by royal licence. He served as

High Sheriff of Rutland This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of the English county of Rutland. The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown: there has been a Sheriff of Rutland since 1129. Formerly the sheriff was the principal law enforcement offic ...

for 1812.

Personal life and death

Noel married three times. His first marriage, in 1780, was to Diana Middleton (d. 1823), daughter of Captain Charles Middleton, the Comptroller of the Navy. The following year Middleton was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

, with a

special remainder In property law of the United Kingdom and the United States and other common law countries, a remainder is a future interest given to a person (who is referred to as the transferee or remainderman) that is capable of becoming possessory upon the ...

to his new son-in-law should he have no sons of his own. Middleton later became

First Lord of the Admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...

and was raised to a peerage as Lord Barham with a special remainder for the barony to his daughter. Lord Barham died on 17 June 1813 without male issue, and Noel consequently inherited his baronetcy, while Noel's wife inherited the peerage. They had eighteen children: * Charles Noel Noel (1781–1866), MP, who succeeded to his mother's barony and his father's baronetcy, later created Earl of Gainsborough * Rev. Gerard Thomas Noel (1782–1851), a canon of Winchester, and father of Caroline Maria Noel (1817–77), author of the hymn "At the Name of Jesus". * Major Horace Noel (1783–1807) * Henry Robert Noel (1784–1800) * William Middleton Noel (1789–1859), MP for Rutland 1838-1840 * Captain Frederic Noel (1790–1833), a naval officer * Rev. Francis James Noel (1793–1854), Rector of

Teston Teston /ˈtiːstən/ The Place Names of Kent,Judith Glover,1976,Batsford. or /ˈtiːsən/ BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names — is a village in the Maidstone District of Kent, England. It is located on the A26 road out of Maidston ...

and Nettlestead in Kent * Berkeley Octavius Noel (1794–1841) * Rev. Leland Noel (1797–1870), Vicar of Exton and Rector of

Horn Horn most often refers to: *Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound ** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments *Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...

Baptist Wriothesley Noel The Reverend The Honourable Baptist Wriothesley Noel (Wells, J. C. ''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. 3rd edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2008. ''REYE-əths-lee''; 16 July 1798 – 19 January 1873) was an English evangelical clerg ...

(1799–1873) * Louisa Elizabeth Noel (d. 1816), who married the banker William Henry Hoare (d. 1819) * Emma Noel (d. 1873), who married Stafford O'Brien (d. 1864) * Charlotte Margaret Noel (d. 1869), who married (first, in 1813) Thomas Welman and (second, in 1839) Thomas Thompson * Augusta Julia Noel (d. 1833), who married Thomas Babington (d. 1871) * Juliana Hicks Noel (d. 1855), who married Rev. Samuel Phillips His second marriage, in 1823, was to Harriet Gill (d. 1826), his mistress of many years, by whom he had a daughter, Harriet Jane (m. Don Ysidro Lopez d'Arze).''Sir Gerard Noel MP and the Noels of Chipping Campden and Exton'' by Gerard Noel, 2004 After Harriet's death he married a third time, in 1831, to Isabella Evans. Noel died on 25 February 1838.

References

* Lewis Namier & John Brooke, ''The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790'' (London: HMSO, 1964)

External links

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Noel, Gerard 1759 births 1838 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Noel, Gerard, 2nd Baronet Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies People educated at Eton College Tory MPs (pre-1834) British MPs 1784–1790 British MPs 1790–1796 British MPs 1796–1800 UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820 UK MPs 1820–1826 UK MPs 1826–1830 UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1832–1835 UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 High Sheriffs of Rutland Gerard