Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne

Background and education

Born Lord Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, he was the second son of Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne, and Lady Louisa Emma, daughter of Henry Fox-Strangways, 2nd Earl of Ilchester. He was educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge. On the early death of his elder brother the Earl of Kerry in 1836 he became known by the courtesy title Earl of Shelburne.

Political career

After graduation, he entered the Commons as MP for Calne in 1837. He served under Lord John Russell as a Lord of the Treasury from 1847 to 1848. In 1856, he was called up to the House of Lords in his father's barony of Wycombe and was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under Lord Palmerston from that year until 1858. On the death of his father in 1863, Lord Shelburne succeeded to his titles and was made a Knight of the Garter a year later.

Historian Simon Kerry (a descendant) writes that he was “a competent administrator but lacked the charisma and flair [of his father the 3rd Marquess]”. In his final months he was one of the Adullamites, whose opposition to Gladstone's 1866 reform bill helped bring down Earl Russell's Liberal ministry.

Family

On 18 August 1840, he married Lady Georgiana Herbert (a daughter of the 11th Earl of Pembroke), but she died six months later. He then married Comtesse Emily de Flahault (the eldest daughter of Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut and the 2nd Baroness Keith) on 1 November 1843 in Vienna and they had three children:

Henry Charles Keith, Earl of Shelburne (1845–1927), later Marquess of Lansdowne

Lord Edmond George (1846–1935), later Baron FitzMaurice

Lady Emily Louisa Anne (1855–1939), married Col. Hon. Everard Digby, a son of the 9th Baron Digby and had issue

Lord Lansdowne died suddenly from an attack of apoplexy on 5 July 1866; his titles were inherited by his eldest son, Henry.