On 11 July 1857, Georgina Alderson married
Lord Robert Cecil, a younger son of
James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury. The period leading up to the wedding was contentious. Georgina did not come from an aristocratic or wealthy background. She was also nearly thirty-years old, two years older than his son, and Lord Salisbury feared her ability to produce an heir. He tried to dissuade the union, and required them to remain separated for six months, hoping the match would end. This period did not lead to a dissolution of the relationship; instead, Lord Robert wrote to his father at the end of the break and said he was engaged to Georgina. The furious marquess considered disinheriting his son; after the wedding he and Robert became estranged. A love match, the marriage would prove to be happy. Historians have described Georgina as clever, witty, and gregarious. In his entry for her husband in the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Paul Smith describes Georgina as "a buoyant and forceful woman" who "share[d] his intellectual interests and encourage[d] and facilitate[d] his career". Their family grew quickly, beginning with the birth of a daughter within a year of their marriage. Seven children followed – five sons and three daughters in total. For eight years, they lived under pinched circumstances in various places within London and Surrey. The young couple had little income during their first years together; Georgina only had £100 a year, and he had a further £400 from his mother. From 1856 onward, Lord Robert supplemented their annual income by contributing political articles to such publications as the
Saturday Review and the
Quarterly Review. During this period, in addition to raising their growing family, she acted as her husband's literary assistant. ==Marchioness of Salisbury==