George Villiers (died 1606)

For other people named George Villiers, see George Villiers (disambiguation).

Sir George Villiers (c. 1544 – 4 January 1606) was the father of James I's favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. He was High Sheriff of Leicestershire, and a Member of Parliament.

Family

Main article: Villiers family

George Villiers, born about 1544,[1] was the eldest son of William Villiers of Brooksby, Leicestershire, and Colett, widow of Richard Beaumont of Coleorton, Leicestershire, and daughter and heir of Richard Clarke of Willoughby, Warwickshire.[2] The Villiers family had been settled at Brooksby since at least 1235.[1]

Career

Villiers is said to have been a "prosperous sheep farmer".[2] He was High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1591, and was elected a Knight of the Shire for the county from 1604 until his death. He was knighted in 1593.[1]

Marriages and issue

Villiers married firstly Audrey Saunders (d.1587), the daughter and heir of William Saunders (d. 14 July 1582) of Harrington, Northamptonshire[1] and Frances Zouche, the daughter of William Zouche of Bulwick, Northamptonshire, son of John Zouche, 7th Baron Zouche (c.1440-1527) of Harringworth,[3] who fought for Richard III at Bosworth,[4] by whom he had two sons and four daughters:[1]

Villiers married secondly, about 1590, his "beautiful but penniless first cousin by the half-blood", Mary Beaumont (c. 1570 – 1632), daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Glenfield, Leicestershire, with whom he had three sons and a daughter:[2]

Common ancestor of sixteen British Prime Ministers

According to Thomson,[9] Sir George is the ancestor of sixteen British prime ministers:

  1. Augustus, 3rd Duke of Grafton
  2. William, 3rd Duke of Portland
  3. William, 1st Earl of Chatham (Pitt the Elder)
  4. William Pitt the Younger
  5. William, 4th Duke of Devonshire
  6. Lord Melbourne (assuming his father was Lord Egremont)
  7. William, 1st Baron Grenville
  8. George, 4th Earl of Aberdeen
  9. Edward, 14th Earl of Derby
  10. John, 1st Earl Russell
  11. Robert, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
  12. Arthur Balfour
  13. Sir Winston Churchill
  14. Sir Anthony Eden
  15. Sir Alec Douglas-Home
  16. David Cameron

see also Genealogical relationships of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Thrush 2004.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Handley 2004.
  3. Howard 1868, p. 159.
  4. Metcalfe 1887, p. 45.
  5. Waters 1878, pp. 588, 595.
  6. Bloomfield 1947, p. 64.
  7. Cokayne 1912, p. 229.
  8. Burke 1852, p. 42.
  9. Thomson, Gerald Malcolm. The Prime Ministers - From Robert Walpole to Margaret Thatcher. New York: William Morrow (1981), p. xxii; ISBN 0-436-52045-1; accessed 8 April 2014.

References

External links

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