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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 1822 | 15 June 1826 | M.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 1826 | 7 December 1830 | M.P. for Preston (until defeated by Henry 'Orator' Hunt) | |
| 15 October 1827 | 5 February 1828 | Under 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 1830 | 28 March 1833 | Chief secretary for Ireland in Earl Grey's whig administration. | |
| 10 February 1831 | 12 December 1832 | M.P. for Winsor. | |
| 17 December 1832 | 20 September 1844 | M.P. for North Lancashire (succeeding his father) | |
| 3 April 1833 | 27 May 1834 | Secretary 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 1841 | 22 December 1845 | Secretary 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 1852 | 28 December 1852 | Formed 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 1858 | 18 June 1859 | Formed Conservative ministry when Palmerston resigned. | |
| 28 June 1859 | Extra K.G. (Knight of the Garter) | ||
| 6 July 1866 | 28 February 1868 | Formed 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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