Harry Grey, 3rd Earl of Stamford

Harry Grey, 3rd Earl of Stamford (10 June 1685 – 16 November 1739), was an English peer. He was somewhat eccentric, displaying this mainly in the construction of whimsical buildings.[1]

Life
Enville Hall, Staffordshire

Harry Grey was born the eldest son of John Grey, who was the third son of Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford. His mother was Catherine Ward, the daughter of Edward Ward, 7th Baron Dudley. He married, on 6 July 1704, Dorothy Wright, the daughter of Nathan Wright, and had seven children by her:[2]

  • Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford (1715–1768)
  • Hon. John Grey (d. 1777)
  • Lady Dorothy Grey (d. 1781)
  • Lady Catherine Grey (Bradgate House, 1711 – Velsen, 1748), who studied in Leiden. In 1735, she ran away with John William Trip (1716–1738), and married him in March 1736. In July 1736, their daughter, Petronella Johanna Wilhelmina, was born.[3] As a mother and a widow, she secondly married Gillis van den Bempden (1697–1748), a wealthy and notorious burgomaster of Amsterdam, in January 1740.
  • Lady Diana Grey (d. 14 January 1780), who married in September 1736, George Middleton of Seaton and Fettercairn (d. 1772).
  • Lady Anne Grey (d. 20 November 1791), who married in October 1744, Sir Richard Acton, 5th Baronet.
  • Lady Jane Grey (d. June 1752), who married in June 1738, George Drummond, 3rd of Blair Drummond.

In 1709, Henry inherited the estate at Enville in Staffordshire from a distant relative. In 1720, Henry succeeded as Earl of Stamford on the death of his first cousin, Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford. He then inherited the Grey estates at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire, thus uniting the two Grey estates.[4] Subsequently, he chose to live at Enville Hall, allowing the Bradgate Park house to fall into disrepair.

On his death, he was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Henry Grey.

References
  1. William George Dimock Fletcher (1887), Leicestershire pedigrees and royal descents, p. 72
  2. www.peerage.com
  3. To My Dear Pieternelletje: Grandfather and Granddaughter in VOC Time, 1710-1720 by Bea Brommer
  4. Grey Family
Peerage of England
Preceded by
Thomas Grey		 Earl of Stamford
1720–1739		 Succeeded by
Harry Grey
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