Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Granville

Granville was the second son and youngest child of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford from his marriage to Lady Susanna Stewart, daughter of Alexander Stewart, 6th Earl of Galloway. His elder, paternal half-brother was George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland.

Granville was educated at Dr. Kyle's school at Hammersmith, and then privately by the Revd. John Chappel Woodhouse. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, in April 1789 but never took a degree. Nevertheless, ten years later, in 1799, the honorary degree of DCL was conferred upon him.[1]

Granville began his career as a member of the House of Commons, representing Lichfield from 1795 to 1799, and Staffordshire for the next sixteen years. Granville served as British ambassador to Russia (10 August 1804 – 28 November 1805 and 1806–1807) and France (1824–1828, 1830[2]–1835, 1835–1841).

In 1815 he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Granville of Stone Park in the County of Stafford.[3] In 1833 during his second stint as ambassador to France, he was created Earl Granville and also Baron Leveson of Stone Park in the County of Stafford.[4][5]

A recent historian says that Granville "was a drab figure, the original stuffed-shirt – starch outside, sawdust within."[6]

Lord Granville married Lady Harriet Cavendish (1785–1862), daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire and Lady Georgiana Spencer, in 1809. They had two sons and two daughters. Their eldest son, Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, became a distinguished politician. Their second son the Hon. Frederick Leveson-Gower was also a politician. Their daughter Lady Georgiana married Alexander Fullerton. She was a biographer, novelist and great philanthropist. Lord Granville died in January 1846, aged 72. The Countess Granville died in November 1862, aged 77.[7] A younger son William died in 1833.[8]

Lord Granville, prior to marrying Lady Harriet Cavendish, was the lover of Lady Harriet's maternal aunt, Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough, née Lady Henrietta Frances Spencer, with whom he fathered two illegitimate children: Harriette Stewart and George Stewart. For seventeen years she "loved to idolatry" this younger man,[9] but then, she understood that he must marry in order to further his career and assure his posterity, and so she actively collaborated in the arrangements for his wedding to Harriet (known in the family as "Harry-O"), who was understandably reluctant to marry her aunt's lover.[10]

• Chamberlain, Muriel E. "Gower, Granville George Leveson-, second Earl Granville (1815–1891)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16543. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Hamilton, John Andrew (1893). "Leveson-Gower, Granville (1773–1846)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 33. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Fitzmaurice, Baron Edmond; Fitzmaurice, Edmond George Petty-Fitzmaurice, 1st Baron (1905). The life of Granville George Leveson Gower, second earl Granville, K.G., 1815–1891. Longmans, Green.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl Granville
• Peerage, Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs . Retrieved on 17 November 2008.