Robert Sherard, 6th Earl of Harborough

[1] His paternal grandparents were Robert Sherard, 4th Earl of Harborough and his wife Jane Reeve.

[4] In 1844, Lord Harborough was involved in an extended battle, both legal and physical, with Midland Railway[a] over its proposal to run the Syston and Peterborough Railway along the course of the River Eye through Stapleford Park, Harborough's country seat in Stapleford in Leicestershire.

It would be more than a year before the sale of the canal was finally completed, on 29 October 1847, but just six months after that, the line from Melton Mowbray to Oakham opened on 1 May 1848.

[9] After his death in 1859, the Harborough's Stapleford Park estate was sold to Lord Gretton, who was more sympathetic to the railway, and when the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway built a connection to Bourne, the opportunity was taken to reduce the curve, which was a nuisance for the express trains, with Saxby station being moved in the process.

[11] Lord Harborough had a relationship with, but never married, Emma Sarah (née Love) Calcroft Kennedy (1801–1881), a professional actress and contralto singer.

Lady Harborough married Maj. Thomas William Claggett of the Indian Army, later a magistrate for Leicester, on 20 April 1864.