Family and Education

bap. 10 Mar. 1797,1 o.s. of Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor† of Charborough and Swell Court, Som. and Sarah Frances, da. and h. of Edward Drax† of Charborough. educ. Westminster 1809-10; Christ Church, Oxf. 1815; European tour 1818-19. unm. suc. fa. 1819. d. 18 Aug. 1828.2

Offices Held

Biography

Erle Drax Grosvenor, whose father had vainly pestered successive administrations for a peerage, was again returned unopposed for New Romney on the Dering interest in 1820.3 He was nominally a supporter of the Liverpool ministry, but was a complete cipher in the House.4 He probably voted in defence of ministers’ conduct towards Queen Caroline, 6 Feb., and certainly divided against Catholic relief, 28 Feb. 1821, but no other trace of parliamentary activity has been discovered. He retired from Parliament at the dissolution of 1826. He died, a bachelor, in August 1828. No will or administration has been found. His estates passed to his sister Jane, the wife of John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge. In 1905 they were inherited by her grand-daughter, the widow of the 17th Lord Dunsany, who then rejoiced in the names of Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Mary Grosvenor Plunkett Ernle Erle Drax. She was succeeded in 1916 by her younger son Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett Ernle Erle Drax.

Ref Volumes: 1820-1832

Author: David R. Fisher

Notes

• 1. IGI.
• 2. M.I. printed in J. Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 507. Gent. Mag. (1828), ii. 283 and Burke LG give 13 Aug.
• 3. HP Commons, 1790-1820, iii. 706-7.
• 4. Black Bk. (1823), p. 160; Session of Parl. 1825, p. 466.