Marquess of Lansdowne is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1784, and held by the head of the Petty-Fitzmaurice family. The first Marquess served as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Origins
This branch of the Fitzmaurice family descends from John Fitzmaurice, second son of Thomas Fitzmaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry (see Earl of Kerry for earlier history of the family), and his wife Anne, the daughter of the political economist Sir William Petty, whose wife had been created Baroness Shelburne for her own life only and whose two sons had been created at different times Baron Shelburne in the peerage of Ireland and Earl of Shelburne respectively, but who had both died without heirs. In 1751, on the death of his maternal uncle Henry Petty, Earl of Shelburne, John Fitzmaurice succeeded to his estates and assumed by Act of Parliament the surname of Petty in addition to FitzMaurice. That same year, he was created Viscount FitzMaurice and Baron Dunkeron in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1753, the earldom held by his uncle was revived when he was made Earl of Shelburne, in the County of Wexford, in the Peerage of Ireland. He later represented Wycombe in the House of Commons as a Whig, his Irish peerages not disbarring him. However, in 1760 Viscount FitzMaurice was created Baron Wycombe, of Chepping Wycombe in the County of Buckingham, in the Peerage of Great Britain, which gave him a seat in the House of Lords at Westminster and meant that he could no longer sit in the Commons.
Through his first wife Lady Sophia Carteret (1745–1771), only daughter of Robert Carteret, 3rd Earl Granville, Fitzmaurice acquired large estates, including Lansdowne Hill near Bath, from which his son later took a new title.
From 1765 until the Reform Act 1832, the head of the family controlled the two seats in parliament of the pocket borough of Calne in Wiltshire. After 1832, there was only one seat and a wider franchise, but a member of the family was usually elected until the borough was abolished in 1885.
Creations
The first Earl of Shelburne of the new creation was succeeded by his eldest son William Petty-FitzMaurice, 2nd Earl of Shelburne. He was a prominent statesman and served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1782 to 1783. His brother Thomas FitzMaurice (1742–1793) of Cliveden, was a Member of Parliament. In 1784, the second Earl of Shelburne was created Marquess of Lansdowne, in the County of Somerset, Earl of Wycombe, of Chepping Wycombe, and Viscount Calne and Calston, referring to Calne and Calstone in the County of Wiltshire, all in the Peerage of Great Britain. However, he is better known to history under his former title of Earl of Shelburne. He was succeeded by his son from his first marriage to Lady Sophia Carteret, John Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 2nd Marquess of Lansdowne. He died childless in 1809 and was succeeded by his half-brother, the third Marquess, the son of their father’s second marriage, to Lady Louisa FitzPatrick. Known as Lord Henry Petty from 1784 to 1809, he was one of the most influential Whig politicians of the first half of the 19th century. In a ministerial career spanning over fifty years, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1806 to 1807, as Home Secretary from 1827 to 1828, as Lord President of the Council from 1830 to 1834, 1835 to 1841, and 1846 to 1852, and as Minister without Portfolio from 1852 to 1858. He twice declined to become Prime Minister and in 1857 refused the offer of a dukedom from Queen Victoria. In 1818 Lansdowne also succeeded his cousin as fourth Earl of Kerry. His eldest son William Petty FitzMaurice, Earl of Kerry, was a Member of Parliament for Calne, but predeceased his father, without having a son. Lansdowne was therefore succeeded by his second son, the fourth Marquess. He had already in 1856 been summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title of Baron Wycombe and served under Lord Palmerston as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1856 to 1858. He married as his second wife Emily Jane Mercer-Elphinstone-de Flahault, 8th Lady Nairne (see the Lord Nairne), eldest daughter of the French general and statesman Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut, and his wife Margaret Nairne, 7th Lady Nairne.