George Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey

George Bussy Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey, PC, FSA (9 June 173522 August 1805), styled Viscount Villiers from 1742 to 1769, was a British politician and courtier.

Early life He was the oldest surviving son of William Villiers, 3rd Earl of Jersey, and the former Anne Russell, Duchess of Bedford. Born Lady Anne Egerton, his mother was the widow of Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford, who died in 1732 at age 24. She married William Villiers in 1733. His elder brother, Frederick William Villiers, died in childhood in 1742, at which time he was styled Viscount Villiers. His maternal grandparents were Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater, and Lady Elizabeth Churchill (herself the daughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough).

On his elevation to the peerage in 1769, he was made a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to George III from 1769 to 1777, and served as Master of the Buckhounds from 1782 to 1783, and in other court posts until 1800. Because of his courtly manners he was known as the "Prince of Maccaronies."

He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1787.

Personal life Middleton Park, Oxfordshire - seat of the Earls of Jersey, c. 1830 Lord Jersey married Frances Twysden at her stepfather's house in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields on 26 March 1770. Lady Jersey, who was seventeen years younger than her husband, became one of the more notorious mistresses of George IV in 1793, when he was still Prince of Wales. She was 40 years old at the time and more than once a grandmother. Together, Lord and Lady Jersey had ten children:

Lady Charlotte Anne Villiers (1771–1808), who married Lord William Russell, the posthumous son of Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (eldest son of the 4th Duke of Bedford), in 1789. The 4th Duke was the younger brother of the 4th Earl's mother's first husband, Wriothesley. Lord William was the younger brother of the 5th and 6th Dukes of Bedford, and uncle of the 7th Duke of Bedford. After their divorce in the Scottish courts in 1809, she married secondly George Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll, the eldest son of John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll, and his wife, Elizabeth Campbell, 1st Baroness Hamilton.

Descendants

Through his daughter Anne, he was a grandfather of John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, who married Harriet Cholmondeley, the illegitimate daughter of the 4th Earl of Cholmondeley. After her death in July 1815, he married Lady Louisa Grey, daughter of the 2nd Earl Grey.

Through his daughter Caroline, he is an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, and of her sons, William, Prince of Wales and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.

Ancestry