THE ANCESTRY OF THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTERS
I have compiled the seize quartiers (ancestry back to great-great-grandparents) of some of the British prime ministers (PMs). Brief biographies of the PMs from Walpole (generally regarded as the first) to Blair are in Robert Eccleshall and Graham Walker, eds., Biographical Dictionary of British Prime Ministers (London, 1998).
My sources for the ancestry of individual PMs are given on each page, after the seize quartiers. So far I have not generally given specific page numbers of secondary sources or indicated which sources are used for each particular statement. In cases where secondary sources are contradictory or apparently unreliable, I hope to eventually locate the primary evidence for the statements. These tables should be treated as works in progress. For many of the PMs, much original research will be required to get the ancestor tables as complete as possible.
In some cases where I am aware of an article about the ancestry of a particular PM, I have provided a citation without reproducing the information.
Several of the PMs are ancestors of (or share a significant proportion of their ancestry with) Prince William. I have included some examples of this in the notes at the end of the PMs’ pages. The ancestry of Prince Charles to the eighteenth generation is set out in Gerald Paget, The Lineage and Ancestry of HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (Edinburgh and London, 1977). Paget gives dates but not places of birth/baptism, marriage and death/burial. Although some of the sources he used were excellent, others contained significant errors, and unfortunately references are not given. I have therefore not relied on Paget’s work. Some additions and corrections to it were given by Gary Boyd Roberts in the early issues of The Genealogist. Richard K. Evans, The Ancestry of Diana, Princess of Wales (Boston, 2007), covers twelve generations of the ancestry of Prince William’s mother.
To access the seize quartiers, click on the appropriate links below. I have not yet done enough research to warrant making seize quartiers of all the PMs available, so some of the names are not hyperlinked.
I welcome comments about these pages. My e-mail address is on my home page.
Edward J. Davies
Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (PM 1721-42)
Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington (PM 1742-43)
Henry Pelham (PM 1743-54) and Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (PM 1754-56, 1757-62)
William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire (PM 1756-57)
John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (PM 1762-63)
George Grenville (PM 1763-65)
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (PM 1765-66, 1782)
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (PM 1766-68)
Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (PM 1768-70)
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (PM 1770-82)
William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (PM 1782-83)
William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (PM 1783, 1807-09)
William Pitt “the Younger” (PM 1783-1801, 1804-06)
Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (PM 1801-04)
William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (PM 1806-07)
Spencer Perceval (PM 1809-12)
Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool (PM 1812-27)
George Canning (PM 1827)
Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich (PM 1827-28)
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (PM 1828-30)
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (PM 1830-34)
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (PM 1834, 1835-39, 1839-41)
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (PM 1834-35, 1841-45, 1845-46)
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (PM 1846-52, 1865-66)
Edward Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (PM 1852, 1858-59, 1866-68)
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen (PM 1852-55)
Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (PM 1855-58, 1859-65) (citation)
Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (PM 1868, 1874-80) (citation)
William Ewart Gladstone (PM 1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, 1892-94)
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (PM 1885, 1886-92, 1895-1902)
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1894-95)
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl Balfour (PM 1902-05)
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (PM 1905-08)
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith (PM 1908-16)
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl of Dwyfor (PM 1916-22)
Andrew Bonar Law (PM 1922-23)
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (PM 1923, 1924-29, 1935-37)
James Ramsay MacDonald (PM 1924, 1929-35)
Arthur Neville Chamberlain (PM 1937-40)
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (PM 1940-45, 1951-55) (citation)
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl of Prestwood (PM 1945-51)
Sir Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (PM 1955-57)
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (PM 1957-63)
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, 14th Earl of Home (PM 1963-64)
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (PM 1964-70, 1974-76)
Edward Richard George Heath (PM 1970-74) (citation)
Leonard James Callaghan, Lord Callaghan of Cardiff (PM 1976-79)
Margaret Hilda (Roberts) Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven (PM 1979-90) (citation)
John Major (PM 1990-97)
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (PM 1997-2007) (see here)
James Gordon Brown (PM 2007- )