The Earl of Derby | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byWilliam Derby,c. 1837 | |
| Born | (1775-04-21)21 April 1775 Knowsley Hall,Lancashire |
| Died | 30 June 1851(1851-06-30) (aged 76) Knowsley Hall, Lancashire |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Issue | |
| Father | Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby |
| Mother | Lady Elizabeth Hamilton |
Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (21 April 1775 – 30 June 1851), styledLord Stanley from 1776 to 1832, andBaron Stanley of Bickerstaffe from 1832–4, was an English politician, peer, landowner, builder, farmer, art collector andnaturalist. He was the patron of the writerEdward Lear.
%2c_Twelfth_Earl_of_Derby%2c_with_His_First_Wife_(Lady_Elizabeth_Hamilton%2c_1753%25E2%2580%25931797)_and_Their_Son_(Edward_Smith_Stanley%2c_1775%25E2%2580%25931851)_MET_DP169403.jpg)
He was the eldest child and only son and heir ofEdward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby (1752–1834) by his wifeElizabeth Hamilton, a daughter ofJames Hamilton, 6th Duke of Hamilton.
He was educated atEton College andTrinity College, Cambridge.[1] On 10 November 1796 he was appointed aDeputy Lieutenant of Lancashire[2] and in the same year he was elected as aMember of Parliament forPreston. He held this seat until 1812 and then representedLancashire until 1832, when he was ennobled asBaron Stanley of Bickerstaffe, ofBickerstaffe in theCounty Palatine ofLancaster.
He was commissioned Colonel of the1st Royal Lancashire Supplementary Militia on 1 March 1797;[3] this regiment subsequently became the2nd Royal Lancashire Militia.[4] He was breveted as a colonel in the regular Army with seniority from that date, retaining the rank until his regiment was disembodied,[5] which occurred at the end of 1799.[4] He resigned his commission as colonel on 13 April 1847.
In 1834 he succeeded his father as 13thEarl of Derby and withdrew from politics, instead concentrating on hisnatural history collection atKnowsley Hall, near Liverpool. He had a large collection of living animals:[6] at his death, there were 1,272 birds and 345mammals at Knowsley, shipped to England by explorers such asJoseph Burke. From 1828 to 1833 he was President of theLinnean Society. Many of Derby's collections are now housed inLiverpool'sWorld Museum. Several species were named after him, for example theDerbyan parakeet,Psittacula derbiana and an Australian species of parrot named firstly byNicholas Vigors asPlatycercus stanleyii, in 1830 when he was Lord Stanley, and referred to in the vernacular as "The Earl of Derby’s Parrakeet" by the author John Gould in the sixth volume of hismagnum opusBirds of Australia. However the latter species was found to have been named previously asPlatycercus icterotis, and thusPlatycercus stanleyii was found to have been an invalid name due to the pre-existence of a published description for the species, according to "the inviolable laws of precedence in deliberations on biological nomenclature".[7] From the Earl of Derby's Collection, the State Library of NSW purchased six volumes of exquisite Australian natural history drawings dating from the early days of British settlement in NSW and this Library publishes talks and exhibitions of its research on this collection.[8]
He founded in 1851 with his natural history's collection a museum in Liverpool, theDerby Museum, the currentWorld Museum, the oldest of theNational Museums Liverpool group.
On 30 June 1798, Smith-Stanley married his cousin Charlotte Margaret Hornby (d.1817), second daughter of Rev. Geoffrey Hornby (1750–1812), of Scale Hall, nearLancaster[9] in Lancashire,High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1774 and aDeputy Lieutenant of Lancashire, Colonel of a regiment of Lancashire militia, by his wife Hon. Lucy Smith-Stanley (d.1833), the earl's aunt and a daughter ofJames Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange (1716–1771).[10] Charlotte's brother wasEdmund Hornby (1773–1857) ofDalton Hall, near Burton, Westmorland, aMember of Parliament forPreston, Lancashire, from 1812–1826, who married the earl's sister Lady Charlotte Stanley (d.1805).[11]
By Charlotte Hornby, he had issue:[12]
He died on 30 June 1851 at his seat, Knowsley Hall.[13]
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forPreston 1796–1800 With:Sir Henry Hoghton, Bt | Parliament of Great Britain abolishe |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| New parliament | Member of Parliament forPreston 1801–1812 With:Sir Henry Hoghton, Bt 1801–1802 John Horrocks 1802–1804 Samuel Horrocks 1804–1812 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLancashire 1812–1832 With:John Blackburne 1812–1830 John Wilson-Patten 1830–1831 Benjamin Heywood 1831–1832 | Constituency divided |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Vacant Title last held by The Duke of Hamilton | Vice-Admiral of Lancashire 1831–1851 | Vacant |
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire 1834–1851 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of England | ||
| Preceded by | Earl of Derby 1834–1851 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New title | Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe 1832–1851 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
