George Venables-Vernon, 1st Baron Vernon

Vernon was born on 9 February 1709. He was the eldest, and only surviving, son of Henry Vernon, of Sudbury, Derbyshire, MP for Staffordshire and Newcastle-under-Lyme, and his wife Anne Pigott, daughter and heiress of Thomas Pigott of Chetwynd by his wife Mary Venables (sister and heiress of Sir Peter Venables of Kinderton, Cheshire). ==Career==

His father died in 1719, leaving him Sudbury Hall, and in 1728 he assumed, by royal licence, the additional surname of Venables after he had succeeded to the Cheshire estates on the death of his cousin, Anne Venables-Bertie, Countess of Abingdon (wife of Montagu Venables-Bertie, 2nd Earl of Abingdon), in accordance with the will of his uncle and her father, Sir Peter Venables. In 1762 he was raised to the peerage as Lord Vernon, of Kinderton, in the County of Chester. He lived at Sudbury Hall, one the country's finest Restoration mansions, which now is a Grade I listed building. ==Personal life==

, Lord Vernon was married three times and several of his descendants gained distinction. He married firstly the Hon. Mary Howard, daughter of Thomas Howard, 6th Baron Howard of Effingham, in 1733. Together they had a son: Lord Vernon died in August 1780, aged 71, and was succeeded in the barony by his son from his first marriage, George. His second son from his third marriage, the Most Reverend the Hon. Edward Harcourt (who assumed the surname of Harcourt) became Archbishop of York and was the grandfather of Sir William Vernon Harcourt and the great-grandfather of Lewis Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt. where she lived until her death in 1794. ==References==