George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis

George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis
Earl of Powis
Portrait by Pompeo Batoni, 1776
BornGeorge Edward Henry Arthur Herbert
7 July 1755
Finchley, London, Kingdom of Great Britain
Died16 January 1801(1801-01-16) (aged 45)
York House Hotel, London, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
BuriedJanuary 1801
St Mary's Church
Noble familyHerbert
FatherHenry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis
MotherBarbara Herbert, Countess of Powis

George Edward Henry Arthur Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis (7 July 1755 – 16 January 1801), styled Viscount Ludlow until 1772, was a British peer.

Early life

Herbert was born at Finchley, Middlesex,[1] the son of Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis, by Barbara Herbert, daughter of Lord Edward Herbert.[2] He was educated at Eton College.[1]

Career

He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1772 and was appointed Recorder of Ludlow[3] and Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire in 1776.[4] Also in 1776 he served as treasurer of the Salop Infirmary in Shrewsbury.[5] Powis was commissioned as Colonel to embody the Montgomeryshire Militia in 1778.[6] In 1798 he was also made Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire;[7] he was also appointed colonel of the Shropshire Militia in place of the Montgomeryshire.[8] He retained both Lord-Lieutenancies until his death in 1801.

Lord Powis made a Grand Tour in Italy in 1775–76, when he probably acquired a collection of marble sculpture preserved at his family seat, Powis Castle. He added a ballroom but did little to maintain the house, visitor John Byng in 1784 ascribing its neglected state to his time spent "in the prodigalities of London and in driving high phaetons up St James's Street." At a later visit (1793) he wrote: "The present (grandly-descended peer) is a mean silly man, the bubble of his mistress (and of his steward consequently) who rarely comes here, to sneak for about a day or two."[9]

Personal life

Lord Powis died at the York House Hotel, Albemarle Street, London, in January 1801, aged 45, and was buried at St Mary's Church, Welshpool.[1] He was unmarried and the titles died with him. His sister and heir, Lady Henrietta, married Edward Clive, 2nd Baron Clive, who was created Earl of Powis in 1804.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c The Complete Peerage, Volume X. St Catherine's Press. 1945. p. 652.
  2. ^ a b Burke's Peerage 2003, page 3209
  3. ^ Doyle, James William Edmund (1886). The Official Baronage of England, v. 3. London: Longmans, Green. p. 85.
  4. ^ "No. 11716". The London Gazette. 5 November 1776. p. 1.
  5. ^ Keeling-Roberts, Margaret (1981). In Retrospect: A Short History of The Royal Salop Infirmary. North Shropshire Printing Company. p. x. ISBN 0-9507849-0-7.
  6. ^ "No. 11871". The London Gazette. 2 May 1778. p. 3.
  7. ^ "No. 15002". The London Gazette. 27 March 1798. p. 263.
  8. ^ "No. 15031". The London Gazette. 16 June 1798. p. 538.
  9. ^ Powis Castle, Powys. The National Trust. 1996. p. 59.Powis Castle guidebook.
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire
1776–1801 		Vacant
Title next held by
The Earl of Powis
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire
1798–1801
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Earl of Powis
1772–1801 		Extinct