Edward des Bouverie
Sir Edward des Bouverie, 2nd Baronet was a British landowner and Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1719 to 1734. In 1717 he inherited his title three years after its grant to his father, and his combined wealth enabled him to purchase Longford Castle in Wiltshire, which later became a home of his brother's most senior descendants and has been in the family for more than 300 years.
[Image:Longford_Castle.jpg|thumb|des Bouverie bought Longford Castle; one tower was demolished and great extensions were carried out by later generations of the family – mainly as Earls of Radnor (a title recreated in 1765 for his great-nephew)]
Early life
des Bouverie was born in 1688, the eldest son of London merchant Sir William des Bouverie and his second wife Anne Urry. The des Bouverie family was Huguenot and came to England in the 16th century settling at Canterbury. He trained as a merchant and was sent as an apprentice at the age of 12 to an uncle Sir Christopher des Bouverie at Aleppo. For a time he ran his own cloth business in Cyprus.His father was created a baronet in the Baronetage of Great Britain in 1714. Edward des Bouverie succeeded on his father's death in the baronetcy on 19 May 1717, in which year he purchased the estate of Longford Castle, in Britford, south Wiltshire from Lord Coleraine. Longford has been the home of his brother's patrilineal descendants ever since. He married on 7 July 1718, in the chapel at Somerset House, Strand, London, Mary Smyth, the second daughter of John Smyth, of Beaufort buildings on the Strand, and his wife Elizabeth Mulsho. Her father was Commissioner of Excise and her elder sister, Anne Smyth married Michael Burke, 10th Earl of Clanricarde.