George Townshend, 3rd Marquess Townshend

Who was George Townshend, 3rd Marquess Townshend?

George Ferrars Townshend, 3rd Marquess Townshend, known as The Lord Ferrers of Chartley from 1782 to 1807 and as The Earl of Leicester from 1807 to 1855, was a British peer.

Townshend was the eldest son of George Townshend, 2nd Marquess Townshend, and Charlotte Ellerker. His father was created Earl of Leicester in 1782 when he gained the courtesy title of Lord Ferrers of Chartley. When his father succeeded in the marquessate in 1807 he gained the courtesy title of Earl of Leicester. Lord Leicester married Sarah, daughter and heiress of William Dunn Gardner, in 1807. They had no children and Sarah left him after only a year.. Lord Townshend, as he became after his father's death in 1811, was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was disinherited by his father and lived mainly abroad. Townshend died in Genoa in December 1855, aged 77. The earldom of Leicester became extinct on his death while the baronies of Ferrers of Chartley and Compton fell into abeyance between his nephew and his younger sister. He was succeeded in the marquessate by his first cousin John Townshend.