James Brownlow William Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, PC (born James Brownlow William Cecil, 17 April 1791 – 12 April 1868), styled Viscount Cranborne from birth until 1823, was a British Conservative politician.

[1] Salisbury entered the House of Commons in 1813 as Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, a seat he held until 1817,[2] and then sat for Hertford between 1817 and 1823.

[7] Apart from his political career he also served as titular Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex between 1841 and 1868,[8] and followed his father as colonel of the Hertfordshire Militia.

[9] During a period of unrest in 1830 he raised the South Hertfordshire Yeomanry Cavalry and commanded it with the rank of major.

[11] The couple had six children, including: Lord Salisbury's second marriage, on 29 April 1847, was to Lady Mary Catherine Sackville-West, daughter of George Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr, and Elizabeth Sackville-West, Countess De La Warr, with whom he had five children: Lord Salisbury died in April 1868, aged 76, and was succeeded as marquess by his third, eldest surviving son, Robert.