Peter Drummond-Burrell, 22nd Baron Willoughby de Eresby explained

Honorific Prefix:The Right Honourable
The Lord Willoughby de Eresby
Honorific Suffix:PC
Office:Member of Parliament for Boston
Term Start:1812
Term End:1820
Predecessor:William Madocks
Thomas Fydell
Successor:Henry Ellis
Gilbert Heathcote
Birth Name:Peter Robert Burrell
Birth Date:19 March 1782
Party:Whig, Tories
Parents:Peter Burrell, 1st Baron Gwydyr
Priscilla Bertie, 21st Baroness Willoughby de Eresby
Relations:Peter Burrell (grandfather)
Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven (grandfather)

Peter Robert Drummond-Burrell, 2nd Baron Gwydyr, 22nd Baron Willoughby de Eresby PC (19 March 1782 – 22 February 1865), was a British politician and nobleman.

Early life

Born Peter Robert Burrell, he was the eldest of three sons born to Peter Burrell, 1st Baron Gwydyr (1754–1820), and Priscilla Bertie, 21st Baroness Willoughby de Eresby (1761–1828). His paternal grandfather was Peter Burrell, a Member of Parliament and Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown, and his maternal grandfather was Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. His mother succeeded to a large part of the Ancaster estates in 1779, to the barony of Willoughby of Eresby in 1780 and to the hereditary office of Lord Great Chamberlain.

Career

From 1812 until 1820, he was Member of Parliament for Boston in Lincolnshire. Up to the 1832 Reform Act Drummond-Burrell was a Whig, but by 1841 had changed his allegiance to the Tories.[1]

On 29 June 1820, he succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Gwydyr, 3rd Baronet Burell of Knipp and Deputy Lord Great Chamberlain. On 29 December 1828, he succeeded his mother as 22nd Baron Willoughby de Eresby and joint (1/2) hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain.

As hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain, he played a leading role at the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, holding the crown.[2]

Personal life

On 19 October 1807, he married Sarah Clementina Drummond (1786–1865), daughter of James Drummond, 11th Earl of Perth, and Clementina Elphinstone (a daughter of Charles Elphinstone, 10th Lord Elphinstone). Together, they were the parents of five children:

His wife died on 26 January 1865. He died less than a month later, on 22 February 1865. They are buried side by side in the churchyard of St Michael and All Angels, Edenham, Lincolnshire. The canopied tomb of their second daughter, Elizabeth Susan (d. 1853) is adjacent, and those of their son Albyric (d. 1870) and grandson Gilbert Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 1st Earl of Ancaster (d. 1910), are nearby. All five tombs are Grade II listed, some jointly.

Legacy

Gwydyr Mansions in Hove, East Sussex, were named after him in honour of his friendship with the Goldsmid family, upon whose land the development was built in 1890.[4]

The Gwydir River in New South Wales was named for him by the explorer Allan Cunningham, for whom he was a patron.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Olney, R. J. . 1973 . Lincolnshire Politics 1832–1885 . . 19 . 0198218486.
  2. Web site: Key to Mr Leslie's picture of Queen Victoria receiving the Holy Sacrament at her Coronation . National Portrait Gallery.
  3. Book: Lodge, Edmund . Peerage of the British Empire . Saunders and Otley . London . 3rd . 1834 . Edmund Lodge . 476 . 22 July 2016.
  4. Book: Middleton, Judy. The Encyclopaedia of Hove & Portslade. 2002. Brighton & Hove Libraries. Brighton. Vol. 6, p. 68.