Henry Cecil, 1st Marquess of Exeter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Marquess of Exeter with his second wife Sophia and their daughter

Henry Cecil, 1st Marquess of Exeter (March 14, 1754 - May 1, 1804 ) was a British politician and peer .

Life

He was the only son of the Hon. Thomas Chambers Cecil (around 1728–1778). His father was the younger son of Brownlow Cecil, 8th Earl of Exeter , and led a lavish life. Although he was temporarily a member of Parliament, he had to live abroad in Brussels and married Charlotte Garnier, a woman of unknown origin who was known as a Basque dancer. Since it was foreseeable that one day Henry would become the heir of his childless uncle Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter , he came to Burghley House in Lincolnshire as a baby and was raised there. He was educated at Eton College and St John's College, Cambridge .

Politician

At the age of twenty years, Cecil was in 1774 as MP for the Borough Stamford into the House of Commons voted. He held the seat until 1790. In 1793 he inherited his uncle as Earl of Exeter and Baron Burghley and became a member of the House of Lords . According to the Act of Union 1800 , he was awarded the title of Marquess of Exeter on February 4, 1801 , the first and highest-ranking Marquis title of the new Peerage of the United Kingdom .

family

Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire
Burghley House, Lincolnshire

Henry married Emma Vernon, heir daughter of Thomas Vernon († 1771), on May 23, 1776. She brought considerable income into the marriage, including the Hanbury Hall estate in Worcestershire . The couple then lived in Hanbury, and Cecil modernized and expanded the country estate over the next few years. A son born in 1777 died at the age of only two months.

In 1785 a new clergyman, Reverend William Sneyd, was appointed to the Church of Hanbury. He began an affair with Cecil's wife Emma shortly afterwards. In May 1789 she confessed to the affair. Cecil agreed to a final meeting in Birmingham . During the meeting, the couple escaped and Cecil returned home alone. At this point, Cecil was deeply in debt. He decided to leave Hanbury and start a new life. The Reverend William Burslem, a friend, took on the job of collecting the rent and paying off Cecil's debts. Cecil bought a small business in Great Bolas in Shropshire and lived there under the pseudonym "John Jones". There he fell in love with the 16-year-old farmer's daughter Sarah Hoggins and married her in April 1790. Since Cecil had done nothing to divorce his first wife, this was bigamy , which at the time was punishable by heavy penalties. It was not until June 10, 1791 that his first marriage was formally divorced and he married Sarah Hoggins again on October 3, 1791 in London . He had four children with her:

When his uncle, the 9th Earl of Exeter, died in December 1793, Cecil inherited his title of 10th Earl of Exeter and 11th Baron Burghley, as well as the family's extensive estates, including the family estate of Burghley House. His wife Sarah died after giving birth to their fourth child at the age of only 23. She had never got used to the big household.

1800 married Cecil in third marriage Elizabeth Anne Burrell (1757-1837), daughter of the House of Commons Peter Burrell (1724-1775) and widow of Douglas Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton († 1799). They didn't have any children.

Cecil died in May 1804. His title of nobility was inherited by his eldest surviving son from his second marriage, Brownlow .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henry Cecil, 1st Marquess of Exeter . In: John Venn , John Archibald Venn (eds.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. 10 volumes, 1922-1958. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk ).
  2. ↑ CECIL, Henry (1754-1804). . . History of Parliament Online. Retrieved December 3, 2017.
  3. ↑ George Edward Cokayne , Vicary Gibbs (Ed.): The Complete Peerage . Volume 6, Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester 2000, p. 272.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Brownlow Cecil Earl of Exeter
1793-1804 		Brownlow Cecil
New title created Marquess of Exeter
1801-1804 		Brownlow Cecil
personal data
SURNAME Cecil, Henry, 1st Marquess of Exeter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cecil, Henry, 10th Earl of Exeter; Cecil, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and peer
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1754
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1804