A traditional description of Lord Bruce was provided by Lady Malmesbury when they met on several occasions on the Grand Tour in 1791.

[2] Formal avenues were planted leading up to the house, in the extensive Savernake Forest, which surrounded the cluster of aristocratic estates in east Wiltshire.

[7] He was colonel of the Wiltshire Militia in 1811–27, a largely honorary appointment, although his record was one of sabre-rattling against the French, behaving for the most part like an Ultra.

He was Member of Parliament for Marlborough from 1796 until 19 April 1814, when he succeeded to his father's titles of Baron Bruce of Tottenham House and the earldom of Ailesbury.

Pitt's Irish Secretary imagined that Bruce was a Tory supporter of the navy, but on every vote, he opposed the Orders of the Day in the Commons.

[10] Grenville chose to repeal the Additional Forces Acts 1803, to which Bruce raised an objection as the war against France was raging in Europe, specifically with reference to the debate on 30 April 1806, being only one of thirty to vote against.

Bruce was "adverse" to the abolition of the slave trade when it was debated in the Commons taking the traditional laissez-faire economic principles; omitting to recall it was a new century.

Having destroyed the League of Armed Neutrality, the Royal Navy decided to prevent the Dutch from becoming agents of Bonapartism.

He supported Spencer Perceval's attempts to pass a Regency bill to regularize Prince George's assumption of the monarch's duties and civil list on New Year's Day 1811.

The general election saw a convincing victory for the new Liberal Tory Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, caused by Perceval's assassination.

On 1 Feb 1849, he responded to the Queen's loyal address "...if not that, pursuing so unusual a course, he might appear to be acting disrespectfully towards their lordships, and perhaps to some degree towards Her Majesty..." He supported the reformist agenda of the Whig government, particularly in foreign relations.

He was strongly in favour of Palmerston's gunboat diplomacy, and supported a joint task force with France to bombard Naples and Sicily to end the atrocities there in 1849.

By deed, he put into trust his considerable estates for his eldest son, houses at Seymour Place and East Sheen in London, as well as a 99-year lease on lands in Wiltshire and Yorkshire.

[22] The Marquess married secondly Maria Elizabeth, second daughter of Hon Charles Tollemache, of Harrington, Northants, (by his second wife, Gertrude Florinda Clarke, widow of Charles John Clarke, and daughter of Gen William Gardiner),[23][24] 3rd son of John Manners MP of Hanby Hall, Lincs.

On Lord Ailesbury's death in January 1856 at Tottenham Park, his titles passed to his eldest son, George.