John Baker-Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield
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John Baker-Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield (21 December 1735–30 May 1821) was an English politician who came from a Yorkshire family, a branch of which had settled in Ireland.
He inherited considerable wealth, and in 1769 bought Sheffield Place in Sussex from Lord De La Warr. Having served in the Army, he entered the House of Commons in 1780, and in that year was prominent against Lord George Gordon and the rioters.
In 1781 he was created a Peer of Ireland as Baron Sheffield, of Dunamore in the County of Meath, and in 1783 was further created Baron Sheffield, of Roscommon in the County of Roscommon, with a special remainder in favour of his daughters. In 1802 he was created a Peer of the United Kingdom as Baron Sheffield, of Sheffield in the County of York. In 1816, he was created Viscount Pevensey and Earl of Sheffield in the Peerage of Ireland. He was a great authority on farming, and in 1803 he was appointed President of the Board of Agriculture, but he is chiefly remembered as the friend of Edward Gibbon, whose works he afterwards edited.
His son and grandson succeeded as 2nd and 3rd Earls of Sheffield, the latter being a well-known patron of cricket, at whose death the Earldom became extinct. The 1783 Irish Barony, however, under its special remainder, passed to the 4th Baron Stanley of Alderley and 3rd Baron Eddisbury, who thus became also 4th Baron Sheffield.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
