[1][2] In 1864 Chaplin fell in love with and became engaged to Lady Florence, daughter of Henry Paget, 2nd Marquess of Anglesey and a celebrated beauty.

[3] After the wedding, a reception was held in St James' Place before the newly married couple set off for their honeymoon at Donington Hall, Leicestershire while the scandal died down.

[12] Despite their political differences, Chaplin also retained the friendship and respect of the Liberal prime minister, William Ewart Gladstone, until the end of his life.

[14] During the summer of 1875, Chaplin remained in London rather than attend Brighton races, in order to assist Disraeli in supporting the Merchant Shipping Bill against the opposition of Samuel Plimsoll.

[17] Chaplin was a lifelong advocate of protectionism, being in this respect the most prominent inheritor of the views of Lord George Bentinck;[18] his daughter Edith said he was "born a Protectionist, and to the end he remained convinced that Tariff Reform was the only measure which could restore a satisfactory means of livelihood to the English farmer".

[14] He was a member of the Royal Commission on the Depressed Condition of the Agricultural Interests (1879–1882) and opposed the Radicals' campaign to replace landlords with peasant proprietorship.

[19] The Royal Commission's final report blamed the agricultural depression on excessive foreign competition and the adoption of the gold standard, which had contributed to the decline in prices.

[21] Chaplin was sworn of the Privy Council in 1885 and filled the office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Lord Salisbury's short ministry of 1885 to 1886.

[22] He opposed Gladstone's Irish Home Rule Bill of 1886,[23] and when the Conservatives returned to power that year he turned down Salisbury's offer of the Department of Agriculture, which did not then have a seat in the Cabinet.

[33] Chaplin was an ardent supporter of the Ulster Unionists in their opposition to the Bill during the 1914 crisis, believing that Home Rule would be the first step towards imperial disintegration.

[22] When the Conservatives entered into a coalition with the Liberal government in 1915, Chaplin became the leader of an Opposition in the House of Commons that offered friendly criticism.

[35] During the political crisis of autumn 1922, Chaplin, along with other "Die Hards", was opposed to the Conservatives remaining in the coalition government headed by David Lloyd George.

[38] On 19 October, he tried to attend the Carlton Club meeting of Conservative MPs that decided to end the coalition but he was refused admittance because he was a peer.

[41] His Conservative colleague Walter Long said Chaplin was "a fine speaker of the old-fashioned school, and delivered many great "orations" from his place in Parliament, and was one of the most deservedly popular men that ever lived".

[44]In her biography of Chaplin, his daughter Edith said he was "of no outstanding brilliance, he owed his power to his fixed sincerity of purpose",[13] and concluded: [H]e was a representative—almost the last representative—of that type of landed gentry whose political and social influence had meant so much to Victorian England.

[45]Known as the "Squire of Blankney", Chaplin took an active interest in agricultural questions, as a popular and typical representative of the English "country gentleman" class.

In 1876 Chaplin married Lady Florence, daughter of George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd Duke of Sutherland, who had survived the Wigan rail crash of 1873.