George Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley

Cholmondeley with inescutcheon of Bertie, all circumscribed by the Garter

George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, ( ; 11 May 1749 – 10 April 1827), styled Viscount Malpas between 1764 and 1770 and known as the Earl of Cholmondeley between 1770 and 1815, was a British peer and politician.

Background and education Cholmondeley was the son of George Cholmondeley, Viscount Malpas, and Hester Edwardes. George Cholmondeley, 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley, was his grandfather.

Career In 1770 he succeeded his grandfather as fourth Earl of Cholmondeley and entered the House of Lords. In April 1783, Cholmondeley was admitted to the Privy Council and appointed Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard in the government of the Duke of Portland, a post he held until December the same year. He remained out of office for the next 29 years, but in 1812 he was made Lord Steward of the Household in Spencer Perceval's Tory administration. He continued in the post after Lord Liverpool became prime minister after Perceval's assassination in May 1812, holding it until 1821.

In 1815, Cholmondeley was created Earl of Rocksavage, in the County of Chester, and Marquess of Cholmondeley. He was further honoured when he was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order (Hanoverian Order) in 1819 Apart from his political career, he was also Lord-Lieutenant of Cheshire from 1770 to 1783 and Vice-Admiral of Cheshire from 1770 to 1827.

Cholmondeley Sound, in southeast Alaska, was named for him in 1793 by George Vancouver.

Personal life Lady Cholmondeley and her son William Henry Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Marquess of Cholmondeley (1805), by Charles Turner. Lord Cholmondeley married Lady Georgiana Charlotte Bertie, They had three children: George Cholmondeley, 2nd Marquess of Cholmondeley (1792–1870) William Cholmondeley, 3rd Marquess of Cholmondeley (1800–1884) Lady Charlotte Cholmondeley (d. 24 June 1828), married Hugh Henry John Seymour on 18 May 1818

He was friends with the disreputable courtesans Gertrude Mahon, Grace Elliott and Kitty Frederick. According to the betting book for Brooks's, a London gentlemen's club, Cholmondeley once wagered two guineas to Lord Derby, to receive 500 guineas upon having sexual intercourse with a woman "in a balloon from the Earth." It is unknown whether the bet was ever finalised.

Eighteenth-century English Studies professor and Guggenheim Fellow Arthur Sherbo nominated Lord Cholmondeley as the likely real-life inspiration for the character of Rawdon Crawley in William Makepeace Thackeray's satirical novel Vanity Fair.