Stanley, Edward Geoffrey, 14th Earl of Derby (1799 -1869)

Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley was the eldest son of Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby, and Charlotte Margaret, second daughter of the Reverend Geoffrey Hornby. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he won the Chancellor's Prize for Latin verse with his poem, Syracuse. During his grandfather's lifetime he was Member of Parliament for Stockbridge 1822 1826, for Preston 1826 1830 and was Under Secretary for the Colonies in Canning's ministry 1827, but declined to serve under the Duke of Wellington. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland 1830 1833, having been defeated at Preston, but being found a seat at Windsor which he held 1831 1832. In that year he succeeded his father as Member for North Lancashire a seat which he held until 1844. A supporter of reform, his speeches in the house were important to the success of the Great Reform Bill. He was Secretary of State for the Colonies 1833 1834 and again from 1841 1845. On his grandfather's death in 1844, he entered the House of Lords in his father's Barony as Lord Stanley, and succeeded his father 30 June 1851. In 1852, 1858 and 1866 he was First Lord of the Treasury. He was also a Knight of the Garter 1859, a Grand Cross of St Michael and St George, a Privy Councillor, a D.C.L. Chancellor of Oxford University, and a Fellow of the Linnean Society. He married, in May 1825, Emma Caroline, second daughter of Edward Lord Skelmersdale. The library of the Earls of Derby at Knowsley was largely sold by auction at Christies in four sales on 19 and 20th October and 17th and 18th December 1953 and 23rd and 24th March and 3rd and 4th May 1954.