des Bouverie was born in 1688, the eldest son of London merchant
Sir William des Bouverie and his second wife Anne Urry. The des Bouverie family was
Huguenot and came to England in the 16th century settling at Canterbury. He trained as a merchant and was sent as an apprentice at the age of 12 to an uncle Sir Christopher des Bouverie at
Aleppo. For a time he ran his own cloth business in Cyprus. His father was created a
baronet in the
Baronetage of Great Britain in 1714. Edward des Bouverie succeeded on his father's death in the baronetcy on 19 May 1717, in which year he purchased the estate of
Longford Castle, in
Britford, south Wiltshire from
Lord Coleraine. Longford has been the home of his brother's
patrilineal descendants ever since. He married on 7 July 1718, in the chapel at
Somerset House,
Strand, London, Mary Smyth, the second daughter of John Smyth, of Beaufort buildings on the Strand, and his wife Elizabeth Mulsho. Her father was Commissioner of Excise and her elder sister, Anne Smyth married
Michael Burke, 10th Earl of Clanricarde. ==Political career==