Although born and educated in Britain, he moved to America in 1873 shortly after his second marriage and lived there for the rest of his life, carrying out charitable works.

He helped to organise the Bureau of Charities in New York, working with the future President Theodore Roosevelt.

He attempted to renounce the peerage (the U.S. Constitution prohibits any "person holding any office of profit or trust under them" from "without the consent of the Congress, accept[ing] any .

[8] They had three children: His first wife died in England in 1869 and, on 14 May 1873, he married her youngest sister, Augusta Jay, in Vienna.

[1][2][15] One daughter was born to this marriage: He died in Washington on 4 February 1923,[2][5] funeral services were held at St. John's Church on 7 February 1923,[17] and he was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[18] A memorial plaque was erected in St. James Church in Christow, Devon.

It states in part, "Kind, wise, and generous, he never forgot his duty to his neighbour, and wherever he lived, he made the community happier and better for his presence and his influence."