Family and Education

b. 17 July 1759, o.s. of Gerard Anne Edwards of Welham Grove, by Lady Jane Noel, da. of Baptist, 4th Earl of Gainsborough. educ. Eton 1770-4; St. John’s, Camb. 1776. m. (1) 21 Dec. 1780, Diana (d. 12 Apr. 1823), da. and h. of Sir Charles Middleton, 12s. 6 da.; (2) 4 May 1823, Harriett (d. 11 Aug. 1826), da. of Rev. Joseph Gill, vicar of Scraptoft, Leics., s.p.; (3) 11 Aug. 1831, Isabella, wid. of Raymond Evans, s.p. suc. fa. 1773; and to estates of his uncle, Henry, 6th Earl of Gainsborough 1798, and took name of Noel in place of Edwards; suc. fa.-in-law under sp. rem. as 2nd Bt. 17 June 1813.

Offices Held

Biography

Edwards’s only connexion with Maidstone seems to have been through his uncle, Sir Horace Mann, whom in 1784 he succeeded as M.P. for the borough. He supported Pitt, voted for parliamentary reform, 18 Apr. 1785, and spoke occasionally in the House. On the death of his cousin, Thomas Noel, he vacated his seat at Maidstone and was returned unopposed for Rutland, where the Gainsborough estates principally lay. He was a member of the group which in May 1788 tried to form a third party independent of both Pitt and Fox. On the Regency he spoke and voted against Pitt.

In an obituary notice he is described as ‘in early life a partner in a banking house in Westminster’,1 which seems to have been Davison and Co. of Stratford Place, Oxford St.2

He died 25 Feb. 1838.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Gent. Mag. 1838, i. 657.
• 2. F. G. Hilton Price, Handbook of London Bankers, 50-51.