CURZON, George Augustus Frederick Louis, viscount Curzon (1821-1876), of Gopsal Hall , near Market Bosworth, Leicestershire

A keen huntsman, Curzon was a firm, if largely silent, supporter of the established Church and the Conservative leadership. His great-grandfather, Assheton Curzon, the 2nd son of Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 4th baronet, of Kedleston, Derbyshire, had been created 1st baron Curzon in 1794, and advanced to the rank of viscount in 1802. His son and heir Penn Assheton Curzon (1757-96) married Sophia, daughter and heiress of the celebrated admiral, Richard Howe, 1st earl Howe, whose family possessed land in the east Midlands. Their only son Richard William Penn Curzon (1796-1870) succeeded his grandfather as 2nd viscount Curzon in 1820 and the following year adopted his mother’s maiden name shortly before being created 1st earl Howe, of the second creation. He succeeded his mother to the barony of Howe in 1835, was a privy councillor and lord chamberlain 1830-1, 1834-49.1F. Boase, Modern English Biography (1892), i. 1555; Burke’s peerage (1949), 1045-7.

As the eldest son of the 1st earl Howe, Curzon secured a number of positions in the Leicestershire yeomanry after leaving Oxford. Unlike his father, who, despite his Conservatism, held aloof from the local party, largely because he differed with them over the corn laws, Curzon was regarded as an uncompromising protectionist, and in 1846 it was reported that he would supplant one of South Leicestershire’s MPs who was considered to be lukewarm on restoring agricultural tariffs.2Daily News, 4 July 1846; Derby Mercury, 8 July 1846, qu. Leicester Journal; The Times, 7 July 1846; Examiner, 26 Jan. 1850. The rumour came to nothing, however, and Curzon had to wait until the 1857 general election to succeed the same member on his retirement. Curzon was returned without opposition after professing that his opinions were ‘strictly Conservative’ and promising to give firm support to the Church.3The Times, 21 Mar. 1857; Dod’s parliamentary companion: new parliament (1857), 172.

At Westminster, Curzon opposed the abolition of church rates and supported Spooner’s motion to abolish the Maynooth grant to the Catholic seminary in Ireland. He disapproved of the ballot and shorter parliaments but divided in favour of the Derby government’s reform bill in 1859, and at the election of that year he was again returned unopposed.4The Times, 3 May 1859; Derby Mercury, 4 May 1859. His voting behaviour, such as his hostility to the abolition of Oxford University tests, continued to reflect his strong support for the Church. He was returned unopposed at the 1865 general election, and although he had voted against previous Liberal franchise bills, Curzon supported the Conservative government’s 1867 measure, whilst favouring the retention of small boroughs, the minority clause and opposing further redistribution to large towns. Outside of the division lobby, Curzon’s contributions were limited to questioning ministers about the pay and conditions of troops in the army and yeomanry, and serving on two election committees.5Hansard, 7 May 1862, vol. 162, c. 1651; ibid., 8, 11 July 1867, vol. 188, cc. 1191, 1391; PP 1857 session 2 (185), viii. 333; 1863 (343), vii. 53.

Curzon topped the poll at the 1868 general election and succeeded his father as 2nd Earl Howe two years later.6McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, ed. J. Vincent and M. Stenton (8th edn., 1972), 168. It was written in 1867 that Curzon, who rode with the Atherstone Hunt, ranked ‘high among the popular and fashionable Masters of Foxhounds of the present day’.7Baily’s Magazine of Sports and Pastimes (1867), xii. 218. He died in February 1876 of heart disease, which had prevented him from ‘taking a prominent part in public matters for some time’.8The Times, 5 Feb. 1876. As his only child, Harriet Alice, had predeceased him by nine months the titles and estates passed to his brother, Richard William Penn Curzon (1822-1900), 3rd Earl Howe, whose son Richard George Penn Curzon Howe, viscount Curzon, was Conservative MP for Wycombe, 1885-1900, before succeeding as 4th earl.9Ibid.; Burke’s peerage (1907), 882-3; M. Stenton and S. Lees, Who’s who of British Members of Parliament (1978), ii. 88. The title survives today but the family reside at their Buckinghamshire seat, Penn House, as Gospal Hall was sold in 1919 and demolished in 1951.10http://lh.matthewbeckett.com/houses/lh_leicestershire_gopsallhall.html; Burke’s peerage (1999), i. 1463-5.