George Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey


George Bussy Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey, PC was an English nobleman, peer, politician and courtier at the court of George III.
He was the oldest surviving son of William Villiers, 3rd Earl of Jersey, and his wife, the former Lady Anne Egerton, the daughter of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater, and widow of Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford.

Parliament

Between 1756 and his father's death in 1769, which took him into the House of Lords, he served continuously in the House of Commons as MP for, in turn, Tamworth in Staffordshire, Aldborough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and Dover in Kent. He followed the political lead of the Duke of Grafton in both the Commons and Lords. He was a Lord of the Admiralty from 1761 to 1763 and was sworn of the Privy Council on 11 July 1765 and served as Vice-Chamberlain from 1765 to 1769.
On his elevation to the peerage in 1769, he was made a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to George III and served as Master of the Buckhounds and in other court posts until 1800. Because of his courtly manners was called the "Prince of Maccaronies."
He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1787.

Family

Lord Jersey married Frances Twysden at her stepfather's house in the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields on 26 March 1770. Lady Jersey, who was seventeen years younger than her husband, became one of the more notorious mistresses of George IV in 1793, when he was still Prince of Wales. She was 40 years' old at the time and more than once a grandmother.
Lord and Lady Jersey had ten children: