Robert Stayner Holford

Robert Stayner Holford (1808–1892), of Westonbirt, in the village of Weston Birt, Gloucestershire, MP for East Gloucestershire, was a wealthy landowner, gardening and landscaping enthusiast, and an art collector. With his vast wealth, he rebuilt Westonbirt House from the Georgian mansion erected only decades earlier by his father, and founded the Westonbirt Arboretum after succeeding his uncle and father between 1838 and 1839. His London home was Dorchester House. Holford served as MP for East Gloucestershire from 1854 when he was elected in a by-election on 19 December on the death of the member Sir Michael Hicks Beach, 8th Baronet (d. 22 November 1854), and continued in that office for eighteen years. He was re-elected in 1857 with Sir Christopher William Codrington and again in 1859 with Codrington (who died 1864 forcing another by-election). He was re-elected in 1864 with the new member Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, 9th Bt. (son of the previous MP). In 1872, he vacated the seat. Family Holford was the son of George Peter Holford (d. 1839), himself the second son of Peter Holford (d. 1804) who made an immense fortune by supplying London with fresh water through a canal, the New River. The Holfords had been seated at Westonbirt since 1666 when a Holford married the heiress Sarah Crew. Robert inherited the fortune of his uncle and namesake Robert Holford (d. 1838) of over one million pounds and in 1839 he inherited Westonbirt House from his father. Holford married Mary Anne Lindsay, a daughter of Lt. General Sir James Lindsay of Balcarres (himself grandson of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres) by his second wife Anne Trotter, daughter of Sir Coutts Trotter, 1st Baronet. (Mary Anne's sister Margaret had married their second cousin Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford). Holford and his wife had the following children Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860–1926) who married Susannah West Menzies (1865–1943), daughter of Arthur Wilson of Tranby Croft, widow of John Graham Menzies (1861–1911), mother of Major-General Sir Stewart Menzies. Margaret Holford (d. 9 February 1908) who married on 17 June 1876 Albert Parker, 3rd Earl of Morley, and had three sons and one daughter. The two elder sons succeeded to the earldom as 4th and 5th Earls, and a third son was father of the 6th and most recent Earl of Morley.