Hon. Edward Frederick Leveson-Gower DL, JP (3 May 1819 – 30 May 1907), commonly known as Freddy Leveson, was a British barrister, Liberal politician, and aristocrat from the Leveson-Gower family.
Early life
Leveson-Gower was the third son and youngest child of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville and his wife Lady Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish, second daughter of Lady Georgiana Spencer and William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire.
His eldest brother, Granville, succeeded their father as earl, while his other brother, William, died at age 16 following several years of paralysis. His sisters were the novelist Lady Georgiana Fullerton and Lady Susan, the wife of George Pitt-Rivers, 4th Baron Rivers.
He spent his early childhood, first in his father's residence at Wherstead, and when his father had become ambassador in France in 1824, at the British embassy in Paris, where he was a playmate of Henri, comte de Chambord.
Aged eight, he was sent back to England on a school in Brighton, after which he entered Eton College. Leveson-Gower left the latter in 1835 and was privately educated for the next two years, until he went on Christ Church, Oxford in 1837. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1840 and a Master of Arts four years later.
Career
After his Grand Tour, he was then called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 1845, practising in the Oxford circuit.
Leveson-Gower entered the British House of Commons for Derby with the support of his uncle William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire in May 1847. However, the election was overturned on petition in July and Leveson-Gower did not stand in the by-election. From 1851, he worked as précis writer in the Foreign Office until the following year, when by the influence of his cousin George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland, he stood successfully as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-upon-Trent. In 1856, Leveson-Gower joined his brother Granville on a special mission to Russia. He lost his seat, however, in the general election of 1857.
Two years later, he was returned for Bodmin and represented the constituency until his retirement from politics in 1885. Leveson-Gower was a Justice of the Peace for Surrey and served as a Deputy Lieutenant for the county.
Personal life
Having travelled to India in 1850, Leveson-Gower, after his return, married Lady Margaret Compton, daughter of Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquess of Northampton, on 1 June 1851. They had two children, one surviving:
- Unnamed daughter (8 February 1854), stillborn at 145 Piccadilly
- Sir George Granville Leveson-Gower (1858–1951), M.P. for North West Staffordshire and also for Stoke-upon-Trent. He married the Hon. Adelaide Violet Cicely Monson, daughter of Debonnaire John Monson, 8th Baron Monson.
Three days after the birth of their son, Lady Margaret died of measles contracted during her pregnancy, aged 28.
Leveson-Gower never remarried and died in 1907, aged 88, having been in his later life a friend of William Ewart Gladstone and his wife.
References
- ^ "Leigh Rayment - British House of Commons, Stoke-upon-Trent". Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2009.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Russell, George W. E. (2007). Prime Ministers and Some Others. Teddington: The Echo Library. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-4068-4104-6.
- Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1895). Armorial families. Edinburgh: Grange Publishing Works. p. 610.
- ^ Debrett, John (1881). Robert Henry Mair (ed.). Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench. London: Dean & Son. p. 96.
- "Leigh Rayment - British House of Commons, Derby". Archived from the original on 3 October 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2009.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - "Leigh Rayment - British House of Commons, Bodmin". Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 9 October 2009.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - M. G. Wiebe; Mary S. Millar; John Alexander; Wilson Gunn, eds. (2004). Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1857-1859 (2nd ed.). Toronto: University of Toronto Press Inc. p. 80. ISBN 0-8020-8728-0.
- "Births". Daily News. 10 February 1854. p. 7. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
- The Annual Register: World Events 1858. London: F. & J. Rivington. 1859. p. 412. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Edward Levenson-Gower
- Portraits of (Edward) Frederick Leveson-Gower at the National Portrait Gallery, London
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byJohn Ponsonby Edward Strutt |
Member of Parliament for Derby May–July 1847 With: Edward Strutt |
Succeeded byMichael Thomas Bass Lawrence Heyworth |
| Preceded byWilliam Taylor Copeland John Ricardo |
Member of Parliament for Stoke-upon-Trent 1852–1857 With: John Ricardo |
Succeeded byWilliam Taylor Copeland John Ricardo |
| Preceded byJohn Vivian James Wyld |
Member of Parliament for Bodmin 1859–1885 With: William Michell 1859 James Wyld 1859–1868 |
Succeeded byLeonard Courtney |
- 1819 births
- 1907 deaths
- Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
- Deputy lieutenants of Surrey
- Leveson-Gower family
- Members of the Inner Temple
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Bodmin
- Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
- UK MPs 1847–1852
- UK MPs 1852–1857
- UK MPs 1859–1865
- UK MPs 1865–1868
- UK MPs 1868–1874
- UK MPs 1874–1880
- UK MPs 1880–1885
- Younger sons of earls
- People educated at Eton College
- English barristers