Neil Primrose, 3rd Earl of Rosebery

Neil Primrose, 3rd Earl of Rosebery KT (1728 – 25 March 1814) was a Scottish peer and politician.

Early life Primrose was born in 1728 in Dalmeny, West Lothian, Scotland.

His paternal grandparents were Archibald Primrose, 1st Earl of Rosebery and Dorothea Cressy (a daughter of Everingham Cressy). His maternal grandparents were Hon. John Campbell (a son of the 9th Earl of Argyll and Lady Mary Stuart, a daughter of the 4th Earl of Moray) and Elizabeth Elphinstone (a daughter of the 8th Lord Elphinstone). Among his extended family were uncles John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll, Charles Campbell, MP for Argyllshire, William Campbell, MP for Glasgow, and aunt Primrose Cambell (wife of Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat).

Personal life

On 19 May 1764, he married heiress Susan Ward, a daughter of Sir Edward Ward, 5th Baronet. Susan died, without issue, on 20 August 1771, leaving him her Norfolk estate. After his death in 1845, she married Thomas Holmes in 1858. Lady Mary Primrose (1777–1847), who married Henry John Shepherd, son of Sir Samuel Shepherd and Elizabeth White (sister of Attorney General John White), in 1808. Lady Dorothea Arabella Primrose (1779–1825), who married William Hervey of Bodwell Hall, Carnavon, son of Thomas Hervey, Esq., in 1801. Archibald John Primrose, 4th Earl of Rosebery (1783–1868), who married Harriett Bouverie, daughter of Hon. Bartholomew Bouverie (a son of the 1st Earl of Radnor), in 1808. They divorced in 1815, and he married Hon. Anne Margaret Anson, daughter of Thomas Anson, 1st Viscount Anson and Lady Anne Margaret Coke (a daughter of the 1st Earl of Leicester), in 1819. Hon. Francis Ward Primrose (1785–1860), who married Percy Gore, daughter of Col. Ralph Gore of Barrowmount, County Kilkenny, in 1829.