Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster

Hugh Lupus Grosvenor was born at Eaton Hall, Cheshire, the second and eldest surviving son of Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster and Lady Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, the younger daughter of George Leveson-Gower, the 2nd Marquess of Stafford and later the 1st Duke of Sutherland. Lady Constance Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, the fourth daughter of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. In 1880, Constance died from Bright's disease (nephritis). Two years later, in June 1882, Grosvenor married Katherine Cavendish, third daughter of the 2nd Baron Chesham and Henrietta Frances Lascelles. She was then aged 24, younger than the duke's eldest son and two of his daughters. They had four children, two sons and two daughters. The succession to the dukedom (and estates) was destined to devolve upon the sons born of this second marriage, because although the first marriage had produced five sons who grew to adulthood, none of them produced heirs. ==Political and public life==

in Vanity Fair, 1870 Grosvenor was elected as Whig MP for Chester in 1847 and continued to represent that constituency until, on the death of his father in 1869, he succeeded as 3rd Marquess of Westminster and entered the House of Lords. His maiden speech in the Commons was made in 1851 in a debate on disorders in Ceylon, shortly following his tour of the country. Otherwise he took little interest in the affairs of the House of Commons until 1866 when he expressed his opposition to Gladstone's Reform Bill. This played a part in Gladstone's resignation, the election of the Conservative Derby government and Disraeli's Second Reform Act. The relationship between Grosvenor and Gladstone later improved and in Gladstone's resignation honours in 1874, Grosvenor was created the 1st Duke of Westminster. When Gladstone became Prime Minister again in 1880, he appointed Grosvenor as Master of the Horse, a position appropriate to his interests in horse racing but "not an actively political office". When Gladstone died in 1898, Grosvenor presided over a Gladstone National Memorial committee that commissioned statues of him, and rebuilt Gladstone's St Deiniol's Library at Hawarden in north Wales. He led the Cheshire Yeomanry as Colonel Commandant from 1869. He also supported charities; at one time or another, he was the president of five London hospitals, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association, the Gardeners' Royal Beneficent Association, the Hampstead Heath Protection Society, the Early Closing Association, the United Committee for the Demoralization of Native Races by the Liquor Traffic, and the Royal Agricultural Society. He was a member of the Council for the Promotion of Cremation; at that time cremation was unpopular with the Church. In 1883 he was appointed as Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire, and when the London County Council was created in 1888, he became the first Lord Lieutenant of the County of London. ==Development of the estates==

The seat of the Grosvenor country estate is at Eaton Hall in Cheshire. When Grosvenor inherited the estate, it was worth at least £152,000 (equivalent to £ as of ) a year. After inheriting the estate, one of his first acts was to commission a statue of his eponym, Norman Hugh Lupus, who had been the 1st Earl of Chester, from G. F. Watts, to stand in the forecourt of the hall. It is said that the hall's guests "were not greatly amused" by the carillon of 28 bells that played 28 tunes and sounded every quarter of the hour during the day and night. He commissioned G. F. Bodley to rebuild St Mary's Church in his Cheshire estate village of Eccleston, which was completed in 1899, the year of his death. He also spent money on Grosvenor House in London and Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, which he had inherited on the death of his mother-in-law. He built shooting lodges on sporting estates in Sutherland, in Scotland, that he rented from his cousin, the Duke of Sutherland. He oversaw much rebuilding in Mayfair and commissioned architects—such as Norman Shaw, Aston Webb and Alfred Waterhouse—to design new buildings. He held his own opinions on architectural styles and decoration, favouring the Queen Anne style rather than the Italianate stucco preferred by his father; for red brick and terracotta; for stucco to be painted bright orange, and railings in chocolate or red; and for Oxford Street to be paved with wooden blocks. He opposed the use of telegraph poles and wires and would not allow any building work during the London season. He encouraged the provision of more urinals, both on his estates and in London generally, and has been described as a "one-man planning and enforcement officer". ==Personality and personal interests==

by Holland Tringham, trained by John Porter at Kingsclere. (Illustrated London News, May 1892). Grosvenor's major interest was in horse racing. In 1875, he established a racing stable at Eaton, eventually employing 30 grooms and boys, with two or three stallions and about 20 breeding mares. He regarded this, not so much as an extravagance, but rather as an aristocratic duty. He never gambled or placed a bet on any of his horses. In 1880, one of his horses, Bend Or, ridden by Fred Archer, won the Derby, and he had more Derby successes in 1882, 1886, and 1899. With his successes and sale of horses, it is considered possible that this enterprise was self-financing. Grosvenor took an interest in the country pursuits of deer stalking and shooting, both in the Scottish Highlands and on his Cheshire estate and added to the family's art collection. Grosvenor was teetotal and a supporter of temperance. In his Mayfair estate he reduced the number of public houses and beerhouses from 47 to eight. ==Final years and death==

In 1899, the last year of his life, he supported the Seats for Shop Assistants Act (to reduce cruelty to women employees), stalked a stag in Scotland, shot 65 snipe in 1½ hours in Aldford on his Cheshire estate, and attended the wedding of one of his granddaughters, Constance Ashley-Cooper, Countess of Shaftesbury, in July. On 11 December, while visiting the same granddaughter at the Shaftesbury estate, St Giles House in Dorset, he developed bronchitis. He frequently suffered from bouts of bronchitis in the winters and was reported to be recovering, but on 20 December his condition took a grave turn. Members of his family were summoned to St Giles, where he died two days later. He was cremated in Woking Crematorium and his ashes were buried in the churchyard of Eccleston Church, Cheshire. The 1st Duke of Westminster had two cenotaphs erected in his honour, one in the Grosvenor Chapel of Eccleston Church and another in the south transept of Chester Cathedral. Another memorial was a stained-glass window in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, dedicated by the Dean in September 1902. He was succeeded as Duke of Westminster by his grandson, Hugh. Estate At his death he was "reputedly the wealthiest man in Britain"; his estate for the purposes of probate was £594,229 (equivalent to £ million as of ), and his real estate (entailed therefore not included in his personal estate under the law of that time) was valued at about £6 million (). Provision was made for his wider family, including: • Increasing the marriage settlements of his sons Lord Henry and Lord Arthur Grosvenor from £30,000 to £50,000 each, as well as granting each life annuities of £3,000; • £50,000 each in trust for his sons Lord Gerald, Lord Hugh, and Lord Edward Grosvenor; • £40,000 each in trust for the marriage settlements of his younger daughters Lady Mary and Lady Helen Grosvenor; and, • Increasing the marriage settlements of his daughters Elizabeth, Marchioness of Ormonde and Beatrice, Lady Chesham from £15,000 each to £35,000 and £25,000 respectively. No provision was made for his youngest daughter by his first wife, Margaret, Princess Adolphus of Teck, as he had settled £75,000 upon her in 1894 when she married Prince Adolphus of Teck. File:St Mary's Church Eccleston, Grosvenor Chapel 1.JPG|Grosvenor Chapel at Eccleston Church: Cenotaph and Garter Banner of the 1st Duke of Westminster File:Chester Cathedral interior 021.jpg|South transept at Chester Cathedral: Cenotaph of the 1st Duke of Westminster (detail) St Mary's Church Eccleston, Old Churchyard - grave of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster (1825–1899).jpg|Grave of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster File:St Mary's Church Eccleston, Old Churchyard - grave of Constance Gertrude (née Leveson-Gower), wife of 1st Duke of Westminster.JPG|Grave of Constance Gertrude (née Leveson-Gower), first wife of the 1st Duke of Westminster File:St Mary's Church Eccleston, Old Churchyard - grave of Katherine Caroline (née Cavendish), widow of 1st Duke of Westminster.JPG|Grave of Katherine Caroline (née Cavendish), second wife of the 1st Duke of Westminster ==Family==

The Duke married twice and was the father of fifteen children, twelve of whom survived into adulthood. The difference in age between his eldest son Victor and his youngest son Edward was thirty-nine years. The Duke's first wife, whom he married in 1852, was his first cousin, Lady Constance Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, the fourth daughter of his maternal uncle the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. They had eleven children, eight of whom survived into adulthood: • Lord Edward Arthur (27 October 1892 – 26 August 1929), who married Lady Dorothy Margaret, the daughter of Valentine Browne, 5th Earl of Kenmare. ==References==