Grosvenors

The Grosvenors:

As part of a county palatine under the Earls of Chester, with a parliament of its own until the early 16th century, Chester was not enfranchised (sent no MPs) until an Act of 1543 since when it returned two MPs to Parliament as a parliamentary borough until 1885, when the representation was reduced to one. From 1679 to 1874, with the exceptions of 1681-1689 and 1701-1715, a member of the Grosvenor family was one of the two MP's for Chester.

Sir Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baronet
Sir Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baronet (9 January 1585 – 14 September 1645) was born at Eaton Hall, Cheshire, the only surviving son of 17 children. At the age of ten Grosvenor joined the household of John Bruen of Stapleford, a "godly Protestant tutor to children of the local upper gentry", who emphasized the link between "magistracy and ministry". At the age of 13 he went to Queen's College, Oxford, matriculated in 1599 and graduated BA on 30 June 1602 (aged 17). His tutor at Oxford was probably the puritan William Hinde. In 1602 Grosvenor also became High Sheriff of Cheshire. He was knighted by James I in Vale Royal on 24 August 1617. In 1620 he became MP for Cheshire as a "junior knight of the shire". He was created baronet on 23 February 1622. In 1623 he was again High Sheriff of Cheshire and 1n 1625 High Sheriff of Denbighshire. In 1626 he was removed from the bench, probably for having spoken out in Parliament against the king’s favourite, George Villiers, the duke of Buckingham, and for having presented the names of Buckingham clients to the Common’s committee for recusant officeholders. Despite his removal, Grosvenor served as a Forced Loan commissioner in 1626-7, and persuaded many reluctant Cheshire gentry to contribute. Grosvenor was a keen supporter of measures to limit imports of Irish cattle in exchange for English coin. He noted that over 5,000 Irish cattle had passed through Chester in 1620. Irish merchants were, he said, underselling their English counterparts and draining specie from the realm, causing a 20 per cent drop in Cheshire land values.

He was re-elected MP for Cheshire in 1626 and 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament until 1640. Grosvenor stood surety for the debts of his brother-in-law, Peter Daniell, but in 1629 Daniell defaulted on his debts, and for almost ten years Grosvenor was "incarcerated" in the Fleet Prison. He led a comfortable existence during his confinement, often being permitted to dine in town, and he made at least one visit to Cheshire. For most of 1636-8 he was sent to live in Reading, and was often in the company of leading Berkshire gentlemen.

in May 1640 he arbitrated a dispute over the parliamentary election for Chester, and in July 1642 he played a leading role in organizing, and probably also drafting, the Cheshire remonstrance, a petition containing over 8000 signatures, which called on the King and Parliament to settle their differences and avoid civil war. During the war Grosvenor remained neutral. Grosvenor's detailed diaries make it possible to reconstruct his political views in considerable detail. He was a firm believer in the "divine right of kingship" and in patriarchal authority, but at the same time he staunchly defended the liberties of the subject and of parliament's role as "the representative of the people". Above all, he was concerned to root out the "evil of popery" and to overcome the influence of "evil counsellors" close to the King.

Grosvenor married three times. His first marriage was in 1600 (while still at Oxford) to Lettice Cholmondley, daughter of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley of Cholmondeley, Cheshire. With her he had a son and three daughters. Lettice died in 1612 and two years later he married Elizabeth Wilbraham, of Woodhey, Cheshire. Following her death in 1621 he married Elizabeth Warburton, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Peter Warburton of Grafton, also in Cheshire. In 1624 he commissioned an elaborate funeral monument to himself, his three wives and the other Cheshire families to which he was connected by marriage. His third wife died in 1627. He died at Eaton Hall in 1645 was buried in Eccleston churchand and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son Sir Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Baronet.

Sir Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Baronet
Sir Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Baronet (c. 1604 – 31 January 1665) was the son of Sir Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baronet and spent his childhood at Eaton Hall, Cheshire. In 1628 he married Sydney Mostyn, thereby also gaining estates in north Wales. Richard was involved in the Civil War on the Royalist side. In 1643 he was High Sheriff of Cheshire and in February of that year outlawed those who supported the Parliamentary cause in the Battle of Edgehill in the previous October. In July 1659 Sir Richard was a supporter of Sir George Booth in the abortive pro-Royalist Cheshire and Lancashire Rising. Sir George Booth surprised and took possession of Chester on the 19th August, and issued a proclamation declaring that "arms had been taken up in vindication of the freedom of Parliament, of the known laws, liberty and property", and then marched towards York. Having been foiled in other parts of the country, General John Lambert's advancing forces defeated Booth's men at the Battle of Winnington Bridge near Northwich. Booth himself escaped disguised as a woman, but was discovered at Newport Pagnell on the 23rd whilst having a shave, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Sir Richard's son and heir, Roger, was killed in a duel by his cousin, Hugh Roberts, on 22 August 1661. When Sir Richard died in 1665, he was succeeded by his grandson Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet, who was aged only eight at the time.

Number #9 Lower Bridge Street: The Falcon was the home of Sir Richard Grosvenor during the Civil War. The section of the building facing Lower Bridge Street was once a section of Row, which extended further down the Street, but this was enclosed in 1643 following a successful petition to the assembly by Sir Richard Grosvenor. It was the first such enclosure of The Rows. His petition gave the following reason why the row was an annoyance to himself and his neighbours:


 * "..by reason of the moistinesse thereof.."

He also argued that his employment with the garrison of Chester:


 * "..tyeth him to inhabit in his said house which is far to little to recieve his familie"

Although no further enclosure of the Rows took place for 25 years, Grosvenor's enclosure of the row started a trend which was to transform Lower Bridge Street. In the late 18thC the building ceased to be the town house of the Grosvenor family. It continued to be owned by them, and between 1778 and 1878 it was licensed as The Falcon Inn. By the 1970s the building had become virtually derelict. In 1979 the Falcon Trust was established, and the building was donated to the trust by the Grosvenor Estate. Between 1979 and 1982 the building was restored by Donald Insall Associates.

Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet
Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet (20 November 1655 – 2 July 1700) was the first member of the family to build a substantial house on the present site of Eaton Hall in Cheshire. In 1677 Grosvenor married; he was aged 21 and his wife Mary Davies was 12, he was granted the freedom of Chester and later the same year he became an alderman. The marriage portion which the guardians of the twelve-year-old Mary Davies were able to offer the young Cheshire baronet consisted of some five hundred acres of land, mostly meadow and pasture, a short distance from the western fringes of built-up London. Not all of this was to be available in immediate possession and the income from the land was at that time relatively small, but its potential for future wealth was realized even then. A part approximately one hundred acres in extent and sometimes called in early deeds The Hundred Acres, lay south of Oxford Street and east of Park Lane. With only minor exceptions this part of Mary Davies's heritage has remained virtually intact and formed the lucrative Grosvenor estate in Mayfair.

In 1679 Thomas Grosvenor was returned as a MP (Tory) for Chester in the "Habeas Corpus Parliament". In all he was to serve in six parliaments (1679-81, 1685-89, and 1690-1701) dying in office.

In 1682 the visit of the Duke of Monmouth in September was accompanied by searches for arms, surveillance of those deemed disaffected, a few arrests, and frequent reports to London. Local antagonisms were intensified by the visit (planned by Mayor George Mainwaring, Colonel Roger Whitley, and other leading Whigs). Monmouth was greeted enthusiastically by the populace and acted as godfather at the christening of the mayor's daughter. The duke rebelled in 1685 - "Hanging Judge Jeffreys" presided over the "Bloody Assizes" at which harsh sentences were handed out to the Duke of Monmouth's unsuccessful followers. Also in 1685 Thomas Grosvenor became Mayor of Chester and later that year raised a troop of horses to support James II in the Monmouth Rebellion. Grosvenor served as sheriff of Cheshire in 1688–89.

In 1689 there was a sharp contest for the city's seats in the Convention: Roger Whitley and the Whig alderman George Mainwaring were opposed unsuccessfully by Thomas Grosvenor and Richard Levinge, the former recorder. Two sons, Thomas and Roger, died young. His other three sons all succeeded to the baronetcy, Richard became the 4th Baronet, Thomas the 5th, and Robert the 6th. He died in 1700.

Richard Grosvenor 4th Baronet
Richard Grosvenor 4th Baronet (1689 – July 1732) was the eldest surviving son of Sir Thomas Grosvenor. At the time of his father's death (1700) he was being educated at Eton, and was under the guardianship of Sir Richard Myddelton and Thomas and Francis Cholmondeley. After leaving Eton, he went on the Grand Tour, visiting Switzerland, Bavaria, Italy and the Netherlands. In 1707 he returned to Eaton Hall, Cheshire, and in 1708 married Jane Wyndham of Orchard Wyndham, Somerset. The couple had one daughter, Catherine, who died in 1718. During the following year, Jane Grosvenor died and Grosvenor married Diana Warburton of Arley. They had no children. In 1715 Grosvenor was returned as MP for Chester and in the following year he was elected as mayor of the city. Around this time he was suspected of being a Jacobite supporter, although in 1727 he participated in the coronation of George II. In that year, Grosvenor and his brother Thomas, won both MP seats for Chester. His mother, Mary, had inherited the manor of Ebury, 500 acres of land north of the Thames to the west of the City of London, which remained largely untouched by the Grosvenors until the 1720s, when they developed the northern part (Mayfair) around Grosvenor Square. Richard died in July 1732.

Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 5th Baronet
Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 5th Baronet (1693 – February 1733) was the second surviving son of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet. In 1727 Grosvenor and his older brother Richard won both MP seats for Chester (Thomas was re-elected in 1733). Thomas Grosvenor succeeded to the baronetcy when Richard died in July 1732. However by that time he was already unwell and, having been advised to travel to Italy, he died in Naples in the February of the following year.

Sir Robert Grosvenor, 6th Baronet
Sir Robert Grosvenor, 6th Baronet (7 May 1695 – 1 August 1755) was the youngest surviving son of Sir Thomas Grosvenor, 3rd Baronet. In 1730 he married Jane Warre of Swell Court and Shepton Beauchamp, Somerset. They had two sons (Richard, later Earl Grosvenor, and Thomas) and four daughters. Initially they lived in Somerset, but when Grosvenor succeeded to the baronetcy, they moved to Eaton Hall. Sir Robert became the MP for Chester in January 1733. When he died in 1755 (still MP) he was succeeded by his elder son, Richard. His second son, Thomas (1734–1795), was MP for Chester from 1755 until his death in 1795.

Thomas Grosvenor
The second son of Sir Robert (1695-1755), Thomas (1734–1795), was MP for Chester from 1755 until his death in 1795. Grosvenor married Deborah Skynner, in 1758. Their second son Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor was MP for Chester while their third son Thomas Grosvenor was a distinguished military commander. Grosvenor died in February 1795, aged 60.

Richard Grosvenor, 1st Earl Grosvenor
Richard Grosvenor, 1st Earl Grosvenor Bt (18 June 1731 – 5 August 1802), became MP for Chester in 1754 and continued to represent the city until he became Baron Grosvenor in the House of Lords. He was mayor of Chester in 1759 and in 1769 he paid for the building of the Eastgate in the city. Grosvenor extended his estate by the purchase of the village of Belgrave, and the manor of Eccleston in 1769. Initially Grosvenor was, like his father, a Tory, but later he came to support the ideas of William Pitt the elder. He was first elected MP for Chester in 1754, holding the seat until 1761. In 1758 he declared himself in favour of the Pitt-Newcastle coalition and following this he was created Baron Grosvenor in 1761. However when the Tory Earl of Bute became Prime Minister the following year, Grosvenor changed his allegiance. Then, when Pitt was returned to power in the Chatham Ministry of 1766–68, Grosvenor returned to support him. During the 1770s he supported Lord North during the American War of Independence. He voted against Fox's India Bill in 1783 and was rewarded by William Pitt the Younger with title of Earl Grosvenor the following year. Grosvenor died at Earls Court in 1802 and was buried in the family vault at St Mary's Church, Eccleston. His assets amounted to "under £70,000" (£5,450,000 in 2015), but his debts were "over £100,000" (£7,790,000 in 2015)

Field Marshal Thomas Grosvenor
Field Marshal Thomas Grosvenor (30 May 1764 – 20 January 1851) the son of Thomas (1734–1795), was elected MP for Chester in 1795. He stood down as Member of Parliament for Chester in 1826 to make way for his cousin's son, Robert Grosvenor (1801-1893), and instead became Member of Parliament for Stockbridge.

Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor
Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor (5 October 1762 – 8 February 1819) was elected MP for Chester in 1802 (succeeding to Robert (1767-1845)), and held the seat until 1807.

Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster
Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster, KG (22 March 1767 – 17 February 1845) was the son of Richard Grosvenor, whom he succeeded in 1802 as 2nd Earl Grosvenor. He was created Marquess of Westminster in 1831. In 1790 he was elected as MP for Chester and held the seat until 1802, when his father died and he became the 2nd Earl Grosvenor. The Chester MP seat was passed to his Grosvenor was Mayor of Chester in 1807–08, and was responsible for the building of Thomas Harrison's Northgate in the city in 1810. Grosvenor died at Eaton Hall on 17 February 1845 and was buried in the family vault at St Mary's Church, Eccleston.

Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster


Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster KG, PC (27 January 1795 – 31 October 1869), was elected as Whig MP for Chester in 1818 and was later appointed as a Justice of the Peace. In 1830 he was elected MP for Cheshire until the constituency was divided in 1832, and from then until 1834 he represented South Cheshire. He was Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire from 1845 to 1867 and Lord Steward of the Household between 1850 and 1852 in the Whig administration headed by Lord John Russell. On 22 March 1850 he was admitted to the Privy Council. He was presented with the Order of the Garter on 6 July 1857. Of his political activity it is said that "he seldom spoke in the House of Lords". Grosvenor continued the family interest in horse racing and, when he was living in the country estate, he spent time hunting and fishing. He gave generously to charity, and built and restored churches. He was an early patron of the Chester architect John Douglas. Lord Westminster died at Fonthill House, Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire on 31 October 1869 after a short illness and was buried in the family vault in St Mary's Church, Eccleston. His wealth at death is recorded as being under £800,000 (£64,480,000 as of 2015).

Richard was responsible for the donation of the land which became Grosvenor Park.

Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury
Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury PC (24 April 1801 – 18 November 1893) was the third son of Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster. He became MP for Chester in 1826 and held the seat until his resignation in 1847.

Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster
Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster KG, PC, JP (13 October 1825 – 22 December 1899), was the second and eldest surviving son of Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster and Lady Elizabeth Leveson-Gower. He left Oxford in 1847 without taking a degree to become MP for Chester. This seat had been held by his uncle, Robert Grosvenor, who decided to move to one of the two unopposed Middlesex seats. In 1851 he toured India and Ceylon. The following year, on 28 April, he married his first cousin, Lady Constance Sutherland-Leveson-Gower. By 1874 the couple had eleven children, eight of whom survived into adulthood; five sons and three daughters. In 1880 Constance died from Bright's disease. Two years later, in June 1882, Grosvenor married Katherine Caroline, the third daughter of the 2nd Baron Chesham and Henrietta Frances Lascelles, who was then aged 24; she was younger than the duke's eldest son and two of his daughters. They had four children, two sons and two daughters. On the death of his father in 1869, he succeeded as 3rd Marquess of Westminster and entered the House of Lords (his seat as MP for Chester went to his cousin, Norman). His maiden speech in the Commons was made in 1851 in a debate on disorders in Ceylon, shortly following his tour of the country. Otherwise he took little interest in the affairs of the House of Commons until 1866 when he expressed his opposition to Gladstone's Reform Bill. This played a part in Gladstone's resignation, the election of the Conservative Derby government and Disraeli's Second Reform Act. The relationship between Grosvenor and Gladstone later improved and in Gladstone's resignation honours in 1874, Grosvenor was created the 1st Duke of Westminster.

After inheriting the estate, one of his first acts was to commission a statue of his namesake, the Norman Hugh of Avranches, who had been the 1st Earl of Chester, from G. F. Watts, to stand in the forecourt of the hall. Whether there was actually any relationship between the two Hugh's is discussed here

He had Eaton Hall reconstructed at enormous expense.

He was one of the most successful British race horse owners of all time - the character "Colonel Ross" in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story Silver Blaze is believed to be based on Hugh Grosvenor.In 1899, the last year of his life, he supported the Seats for Shops Assistants Bill (to reduce cruelty to women employees), stalked a stag in Scotland, shot 65 snipe in 1½ hours in Aldford on his Cheshire estate, and attended the wedding of one of his granddaughters. Later that year, while visiting the same granddaughter in Cranborne, Dorset, he developed bronchitis, from which he died. He was cremated in Woking Crematorium and his ashes were buried in the churchyard of Eccleston Church, Cheshire. He was succeeded as Duke of Westminster by his grandson, Hugh. At his death he was "reputedly the wealthiest man in Britain"; his estate for the purposes of probate was £594,229 (£58.4 million as of 2015).

Norman de l'Aigle Grosvenor
Norman de l'Aigle Grosvenor (22 April 1845 – 21 November 1898) a younger son of Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury was returned to parliament at an unopposed by-election in December 1869, succeeding his cousin Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, who had succeeded to the peerage. He did not stand again at the 1874 general election. He was the last of the Grosvenor's to sit in the Commons as an MP for Chester.

Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster


[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Grosvenor,_2nd_Duke_of_Westminster Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, GCVO, DSO. (19 March 1879 – 19 July 1953)] was familiarly known as "Bendor". This was also the name of the racehorse 'Bend Or' owned by his grandfather the first Duke, which won the Epsom Derby in 1880, the year following his grandson's birth. The name is a reference to the lost former arms of the family Azure, a bend or, which were awarded to the Scrope family in the famous case of 1389 heard before the Court of Chivalry in St Johns, Chester (discussed here).

In 1931, the Duke, a Conservative, exposed his brother-in-law, William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp (1872–1938), as a homosexual to the King and Queen in the hope that this would ruin the Liberal Party. The king was horrified, supposedly saying, "I thought men like that shot themselves." During the run-up to World War II, he supported various right-wing and anti-Semitic causes, including the Right Club. "His anti-Semitic rants were notorious." In her book “The Light of the Common Day,” Lady Diana Cooper reminisces back to the day of September 1, 1939. She and her husband, Duff Cooper were lunching at London’s Savoy Grill with the Duke of Westminster. She recalls:


 * “‘when he [the Duke of Westminster] added that Hitler knew after all that we were his best friends, he set off the powder-magazine. "I hope". Duff spat, "that by tomorrow he will know that we are his most implacable and remorseless enemies". Next day "Bendor (Duke of Westminster)", telephoning to a friend, said that if there was a war it would be entirely due to the Jews and Duff Cooper'.”

The Duke, known for his pro-German sympathies, was reportedly, instrumental in influencing his former mistress, Coco Chanel, to use her association with Winston Churchill to broker a bilateral peace agreement between the British and the Nazis. It was in late 1943 or early 1944 that Chanel, and her then current lover, Nazi espionage agent, Baron Hans Gunther Von Dinklage, did undertake such an assignment. Code named “Operation Modellhut,” it was an attempt through the British Embassy in Madrid, via Chanel, to influence Churchill, and thereby persuade the British to negotiate a separate peace with Germany. This mission as planned ultimately met with failure, as Churchill had no interest.

William Grosvenor, 3rd Duke of Westminster
William Grosvenor, 3rd Duke of Westminster (23 December 1894 – 22 February 1963) was the son of Lord Henry Grosvenor and a grandson of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster. On his mother Dora's side, he was a great x2 grandson of William IV. He was brain-damaged at birth. After the death of his mother, he lived with his stepmother, Rosamund, in a small house in the South of England. He took no part in politics. The Duke died in 1963 at the age of 68, unmarried and childless.

Colonel Gerald Hugh Grosvenor, 4th Duke of Westminster
Colonel Gerald Hugh Grosvenor, 4th Duke of Westminster DSO, PC (13 February 1907 – 25 February 1967) was the son of Captain Lord Hugh William Grosvenor and Lady Mabel Crichton and a grandson of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster. He died in 1967, aged 60, and his titles passed to his brother, Robert Grosvenor.

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert George Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster
Lieutenant-Colonel Robert George Grosvenor, 5th Duke of Westminster TD, JP, DL (24 April 1910 – 19 February 1979), was a British soldier, landowner, businessman and politician. In the 1970s he was the richest man in Britain. In the 1955 general election, he was elected to Parliament as member for Fermanagh & South Tyrone. Re-elected in 1959, he retired in 1964, he was succeeded by his cousin, the Marquess of Hamilton. In parliament he stuck mainly to constituency issues, but was responsible for a bill to help increase adoptions, which became the Adoption Act 1964. He was described in his successor's maiden speech as popular and well-liked. He died in Enniskillen in 1979.

Major General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster
Major General Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster KG, CB, CVO, OBE, TD, DL, CD (born 22 December 1951) is the present Duke of Westminster. He left Harrow School two O-Levels, and joined the Territorial Army in 1970 as a trooper. He was appointed a one star Major General in 2003 and a two star in 2004. He was Deputy Commander Land Forces, commanding the Reserves, between February 2011 and his retirement on 1 September 2012.