Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby


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Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby 
Eldest son of Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl, and Charlotte Margaret, his cousin, second daughter of the Rev Geoffrey Hornby.
 
Date (from)(Date to)Event
29 March 1799 Born (Knowsley Hall, Lancashire)
17 October 1817 Matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford (but took no degree).
30 July 182215 June 1826M.P. (whig) for Stockbridge
1824 Travelled in Canada and United States.
31 May 1825 Married Emma Caroline, second daughter of Edward Bootle Wilbraham (afterwards Lord Skelmersdale).
26 June 18267 December 1830M.P. for Preston (until defeated by Henry 'Orator' Hunt)
15 October 18275 February 1828Under Secretary for War and the Colonies in Tory ministries of Canning and Viscount Goderich (resigning when the Duke of Wellington became prime minister)
22 November 1830 Privy Councilor.
26 November 183028 March 1833Chief secretary for Ireland in Earl Grey's whig administration.
10 February 183112 December 1832M.P. for Winsor.
17 December 183220 September 1844M.P. for North Lancashire (succeeding his father)
3 April 183327 May 1834Secretary of State at the Colonial Office in Earl Grey's whig administration (until he resigned on the issue of Irish church revenues)
August 1833 His bill to reduce the apprenticeship and increase the compensation of ex-slaves became law.
1 July 1835 Joined Peelite group in parliament.
3 September 184122 December 1845Secretary of State at the Colonial Office in Peel's administration.
October 1844 Called to House of Lords as Lord Stanley of Bickerstaffe
February 1851 Failed to form a ministry when Russell resigned.
30 June 1851 Succeeded his father as 14th Earl of Derby
27 February 185228 December 1852Formed Conservative ministry when Russell again resigned.
19 October 1852 D.C.L. (Doctor of Civic Law), Oxford.
January 1855 Failed to form a ministry when Aberdeen resigned.
25 February 185818 June 1859Formed Conservative ministry when Palmerston resigned.
28 June 1859 Extra K.G. (Knight of the Garter)
6 July 186628 February 1868Formed Conservative ministry when Russell again resigned (Derby retired due to ill health).
30 June 1869 G.C.M.G. (Knight Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George)
23 October 1869 Died.
According to the DNB: 'Disraeli ... summed up Derby's achievements in the sentence, 'He abolished slavery, he educated Ireland, he reformed parliament.' Derby's reputation as a statesman suffers from the fact that he changed front so often. A whig, a Canningite, a strenuous whig leader, a strenuous conservative leader, the head of the protectionists, the opponent of democracy, and the author of the change which upset his own policy of 1832 and committed power to democracy in 1867, all these parts he filled in turn. He was not a statesman of profoundly settled convictions or of widely constructive views. He was a man rather of intense vitality than of great intellect, a brilliant combatant rather than a cautious or philosophic statesman.'.
Literature: (DNB).


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