The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey, Journal entry, 11 November 1809
“Saturday, 11th.—I find by a letter from Whitbread this day that Tierney has been proposing Lord Henry
Petty or Lord George
Cavendish as leader of our party in the House of
Commons! Whitbread says he never can submit to it. Was
there ever anything so contemptible! but the reason is
obvious—Tierney wants Lord
George to be the nominal leader, and himself the real one.
“We dine at Lord
Derby’s—nobody but us. Lord
Derby excellent in every respect, as he always is, and my Lady still out of spirits for the loss of
her child, but surpassing even in her depressed state all your hereditary
nobility I have ever seen, tho’ she came from the stage to her
title.†
George Cavendish, first earl of Burlington (1754-1834)
The son of William Cavendish, fourth Duke of Devonshire; he was a Whig MP for
Knaresborough (1775-80), Derby borough (1780-97), and Derbyshire (1797-1831); he was raised
to the peerage in 1831.
Elizabeth Farren, countess of Derby (1759-1829)
Comic actress; she was courted by Charles James Fox but became the lover and later the
wife of the Earl of Derby upon the death of Elizabeth Hamilton in 1797.
Edward Smith Stanley, twelfth earl of Derby (1752-1834)
Grandson of the eleventh earl (d. 1776); educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge,
he was a Whig MP for Lancashire, a friend of Charles James Fox, nephew of John Burgoyne,
and a committed sportsman.
George Tierney (1761-1830)
Whig MP and opposition leader whose political pragmatism made him suspect in the eyes of
his party; he fought a bloodless duel with Pitt in 1798. He is the “Friend of Humanity” in
Canning and Frere's “The Needy Knife-Grinder.”
Samuel Whitbread (1764-1815)
The son of the brewer Samuel Whitbread (1720-96); he was a Whig MP for Bedford, involved
with the reorganization of Drury Lane after the fire of 1809; its financial difficulties
led him to suicide.
