Quick Facts
Biography
George Bussy Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey, PC (9 June 1735 – 22 August 1805, Tunbridge Wells) was a member of the Villiers family. He was a courtier in the court of George III.
Parliament
Between 1756 and his father's death in 1769, which took him into the House of Lords, he served continuously in the House of Commons as MP for, in turn, Tamworth in Staffordshire, Aldborough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and Dover in Kent. He followed the political lead of the Duke of Grafton in both the Commons and Lords. He was a lord of the Admiralty from 1761 to 1763 and was sworn of the privy council 11 July 1765. Lord chamberlain from 1765 to 1769, on his elevation to the peerage he was made a gentleman of the bedchamber to George III and thereafter held various court posts until 1800.
He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1787.
Family
The 4th Earl of Jersey was the son of William Villiers, 3rd Earl of Jersey and Lady Anne Egerton, the daughter of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater and his first wife, Lady Elizabeth Churchill, a daughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and his wife Sarah Jennings.
Lord Jersey married Frances Twysden at her stepfather's house in the parish of St Martin's-in-the-Fields on 26 March 1770. Lady Jersey, who was seventeen years younger than her husband, became in 1793 (after she had turned 40 and was more than once a grandmother) one of the more notorious mistresses of George IV when he was still Prince of Wales.
Lord and Lady Jersey had ten children:
- Lady Charlotte Anne Villiers (1771–1808), married Lord William Russell in 1789, and had issue.
- Anne Barbara Frances Villiers (1772–1832), married William Henry Lambton and had issue, including John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham; married secondly Hon. Charles Wyndham, son of Charles, 2nd Earl of Egremont.
- George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey (1773–1859), married Sarah Sophia Fane daughter of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland and Sarah Anne Child, only child of Robert Child, the principal shareholder in the banking firm Child & Co.
- Lady Caroline Elizabeth Villiers (1774–1835), married firstly Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey and had issue. She divorced him in the Scottish courts in 1809 and married secondly, George Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll.
- Lady Georgiana Villiers, d. young.
- Lady Sarah Villiers (b. 1779), married Charles Nathaniel Bayley in 1799.
- Hon. William Augustus Henry Villiers (1780–1813), died unmarried in America, having assumed the surname of Mansel in 1802, pursuant to the will of Louisa Barbara, Baroness Vernon.
- Lady Elizabeth Villiers, d. unmarried 1810.
- Lady Frances Elizabeth Villiers (1786–1866), married John Ponsonby, 1st Viscount Ponsonby, in 1803.
- Lady Harriet Villiers (1788–1870), married Richard Bagot, Bishop of Oxford in 1806, and had issue.