British politician and diplomat
Edward Granville Eliot, 3rd Earl of St Germans (29 August 1798 – 7 October 1877), styled Lord Elliot from 1823–45, was a British politician, peer, and diplomat.
Background and education.
St Germans was born in Plymouth, Devon, the son of William Eliot, 2nd Earl of St Germans and his first wife, Lady Georgina (13 April 1769 – 4 March 1806), daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford. He was educated at Westminster School from 1809 to 1811, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford on 13 December 1815.
Political career.
St Germans became the Secretary of Legation at Madrid on 21 November 1823. He became member of parliament for Liskeard the following year. Beginning his career as a Tory, he remained loyal to Robert Peel, and served as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from 1827 until 1830. Out of parliament between 1832 and 1837, he served in Peel's second government first as Chief Secretary for Ireland and later as Postmaster General of the United Kingdom. He brokered the so-called Lord Eliot Convention in Spain, which aimed to end the indiscriminate executions by firing squad of prisoners on both sides of the First Carlist War.
When the debate over the Corn Laws broke the Conservative Party he followed Peel, and served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Lord Aberdeen's coalition government. In that role, he hosted the visit of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort to the 1853 Great Exhibition held in Dublin. The Queen gave Lady St Germans a gift of jewellery to mark the occasion. He was twice Lord Steward under Lord Palmerston. In 1860, he accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour of Canada and the USA.
Marriage and issue.
Lord St Germans married Lady Jemima Cornwallis (24 December 1803, Brome, Suffolk – 2 July 1856, Dover Street, London), the third daughter of Charles Cornwallis, 2nd Marquess Cornwallis, at St James Church, Westminster, on 2 September 1824. They had six sons and two daughters:
Lord St Germans died at Port Eliot in October 1877, aged 79. Through his youngest son, he was the great-grandfather of Margaret Eliot (1914–2011), the mother of Peter and Jane Asher.
References.
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