Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (29 March 1799 – 23 October 1869), known as Lord Stanley from 1834 to 1851, was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served three times as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

It was his greatest achievement to create the modern Conservative Party in the framework of the Whig constitution, though it was Disraeli who laid claim to it.

[5] The Stanley family, originally bearing the surname Audley, rose to prominence in the 15th century after adopting the name from estates in Staffordshire and Derbyshire.

[7] The family fell under hardship during the English Civil War in which James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby was executed for his loyalty to the Crown in 1651 after the Royalist defeat.

The family’s fortunes waned even during the Restoration but rebounded economically due to Liverpool estates, with political prominence resuming under Edward Stanley in the 19th century.

Christ Church, at the time under Dean Cyril Jackson had already seen its peak and it was common for students to leave without taking a degree, a path Stanley also followed.

Previously, the seatcontrolled by a Tory West Indian merchant who sold it to a Whig peer, which was used to nominate Stanley as a member of the House of Commons.

Years later, Stanley himself later criticised rotten boroughs, arguing that their representatives, no matter how talented, lacked true legitimacy in the eyes of the people.

[12] Early in his Parliamentary career, Stanley was noted for wearing the traditional “buff and blue” uniform associated with Whig gentlemen, a style already becoming outdated.

Cobbett had been backed by a subscription headed by Sir Thomas Beevor of Hargham in Norfolk, aiming to carry Preston, but he finished at the bottom of the poll.

The election was significant due to the wide franchise in the borough, which was essentially household suffrage, allowing a broad base of electors to cast their votes.

[21] In 1833, Stanley moved up to the more important position of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, overseeing the passage of the Abolition of Slavery Bill.

He then formed a group called the "Derby Dilly" and attempted to chart a middle course between what they saw as the increasingly radical Whiggery of Lord John Russell and the conservatism of the Tories.

Tory leader Sir Robert Peel's turn to the centre with the 1834 Tamworth Manifesto, published three days before Stanley's "Knowsley Creed" speech, robbed the Stanleyites of much of the uniqueness of their programme.

[25][26] He broke with the Prime Minister again in 1845, this time over the repeal of the Corn Laws, and managed to bring the majority of the Conservative Party with him (including, among others, the young Benjamin Disraeli).

The party system was in a state of flux when the Conservatives left office in 1846, the outstanding issues being the question of Ireland and the unresolved franchise.

With many senior Conservative ministers having followed Peel, Derby was forced to appoint many new men to the office of the Cabinet, only three were pre-existing Privy Counsellors.

When the aged Duke of Wellington, by then very deaf, heard the list of inexperienced cabinet ministers being read aloud in the House of Lords, he gave the government its nickname by shouting "Who?

[citation needed] In the general election of June 1852, the Conservative party under Derby and Disraeli won only 330 seats in the House of Commons—42.9% of the total.

Once again the government was short-lived, resigning after only one year, having narrowly lost a vote of no-confidence brought by Lord Hartington on behalf of various Whig and Radical factions which had coalesced at the Willis's Rooms meetings in St James's Street to mark the birth of the Liberal Party.

[38] This tactic was thwarted by Russell's declining influence and by Chancellor of the Exchequer William Ewart Gladstone's 1861 budget which united the cabinet and increased divisions amongst the Conservatives.

[40] Derby returned to power for the third and last time in 1866, following the collapse of Lord Russell's second government after its failed attempt at further electoral reform.

[44] He was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 1st Lancashire Rifle Volunteer Corps on 10 September 1862, beginning a family connection with the regiment that endured for over 100 years.

Historian David Cannadine argues: Although almost entirely forgotten today, Derby was one of the great figures of 19th century British public, social and cultural life: he was a fine debater, a classical scholar of note and a significant patron of the turf; he was also an authentic grandee, with very rich, coal-bearing estates in Lancashire, and leader of the Conservative Party for an unrivaled span of 22 years.

[52]Historian Frances Walsh has written: Although he was the first politician to become prime minister three times and remains the longest-serving party leader in British history he has not received the recognition one would expect.

As a landed aristocrat with Whig antecedents, literary tastes, and a passionate interest in shooting and the turf he seemed to represent an obsolete, amateur tradition in politics, while the mythologizing of Disraeli as the architect of conservative survival and success tended to cast him into the shadows.

[53] The letter had tried to deal with the seemingly intractable issue of different Christian religions living together in Ireland, but by the end of the century denominational schools had become the norm.