Henry George Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 2nd Earl of Ducie (8 May 1802 – 2 June 1853), styled the Hon. Henry Reynolds-Moreton from 1808 to 1837 and the Lord Moreton from 1837 to 1840, was a British Whig politician, agriculturalist and cattle breeder.
Ducie was the son of Thomas Reynolds-Moreton, 1st Earl of Ducie, and his wife Lady Frances, daughter of Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Carnarvon, and was educated at Eton. He entered Parliament for Gloucestershire in 1831, a seat he held until the following year when the constituency was abolished, and then represented Gloucestershire East until 1835. After entering the House of Lords on the death of his father in 1840 he served in the Whig administration of Lord Russell as a Lord-in-Waiting (government whip in the House of Lords) from 1846 to 1847, when he resigned. In Parliament he gained a reputation as an advocate of free trade. Despite his political career Ducie is best remembered as a leading agriculturalist and as a breeder of shorthorns. From 1851 to 1852 he was President of the Royal Agricultural Society. The sale of his famous shorthorns shortly after his death in 1853 generated £9,000. The "Ducie cultivator" usually ascribed to him is in fact believed to have been invented by the managers of his ironworks at Uley.
Lord Ducie married the Hon. Elizabeth, daughter of John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne, in 1826. They had eleven sons and four daughters. He died in June 1853, aged 51, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son Henry. The Countess of Ducie died in 1865.
Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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Preceded by Lord Edward Somerset Sir Berkeley Guise |
Member of Parliament for Gloucestershire 1831–1832 With: Sir Berkeley Guise |
Constituency abolished |
New constituency | Member of Parliament for East Gloucestershire 1832–1835 With: Sir Berkeley Guise 1832–1834 Sir Christopher William Codrington 1834–1835 |
Succeeded by Sir Christopher William Codrington and Augustus Moreton |
Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
Preceded by Thomas Reynolds-Moreton |
Earl of Ducie 1840–1853 |
Succeeded by Henry John Reynolds-Moreton |