Penrhyn was born Edward Leycester, the son of the Rev.
Oswald Leycester (later Oswald Penrhyn), of Stoke on Tern, Shropshire, by his marriage to Mary, a daughter of Mr P. Johnson, of Timperley, Cheshire.
He was President of the Cambridge Union Society in the Easter term of 1816, and graduated B.A.
[1] On 16 December 1823 married Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Stanley (1801–1853), a daughter of Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby and a sister of Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, who in 1852 became prime minister.
[3] Penrhyn was one of the Members of Parliament for Shaftesbury from 1830 to 1832, sitting as a Whig.