Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury

Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury PC (24 April 1801 – 18 November 1893), known as Lord Robert Grosvenor from 1831 to 1857, was a British Whig politician.

Grosvenor was the third son of Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster and his wife Eleanora, daughter of Thomas Egerton, 1st Earl of Wilton. He was the younger brother of Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster and Thomas Grosvenor Egerton, 2nd Earl of Wilton, who had succeeded their maternal grandfather in the earldom of Wilton 1814, while Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster and Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Stalbridge were his nephews.

Grosvenor was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. In 1821 he was elected to Parliament for Shaftesbury, a seat he held until 1826, and then sat for Chester until 1847. When the Whigs came to power in November 1830 under Lord Grey, Grosvenor was appointed Comptroller of the Household and admitted to the Privy Council. He retained this office also when Lord Melbourne became Prime Minister in July 1834. The Whig government fell in November the same year. Grosvenor did not serve in Melbourne’s second administration which lasted from 1835 to 1841. However, when the Whigs returned to office in 1846 under Lord John Russell he was made Treasurer of the Household, which he remained until July 1847. The latter year Grosvenor was elected to Parliament for Middlesex, a seat he held until 1857. However, he never returned to office. In September 1857 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Ebury, of Ebury Manor in the County of Middlesex.

Apart from his political career Lord Ebury was an active campaigner for Protestantism in the Church of England, and was the founder and President of the society for the “revision of the prayer-book”. He was also involved in the movement led by Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury for the improvement of factory working hours. In later life he came to oppose William Gladstone on the issue of Irish Home Rule. In September 1893, at the age of 92, Lord Ebury voted against the Second Home Rule Bill, by far the oldest peer to vote in the matter.

Lord Ebury married Charlotte Arbuthnot Wellesley eldest daughter of Henry Wellesley, 1st Baron Cowley, in 1831. They had five sons and two daughters one of them was the Honourable Algernon Henry Grosvenor. Lord Ebury died in November 1893, aged 92, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Robert Wellesley Grosvenor.

References

*Leslie, Sir Stephen. Lee, Sir Sidney (editors). "The Dictionary of National Biography. Volume XXII, Supplement". Oxford University Press, 1917.
*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). "Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage" (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990. thepeerage.com/P931