Edward John Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley (1802-1869), entered the House of Commons in 1831 and became Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1841, Patronage Secretary to the Treasury from 1835 to 1841, Paymaster-General in 1841, and Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1846 to 1852. In 1848, two years before he succeeded to the barony of Stanley, he was created Baron Eddisbury of Winnington. He was President of the Board of Trade from 1855 to 1858, and Postmaster-General from 1860 to 1866. His wife, Henrietta Maria (1807-1895), a daughter of Henry Augustus Dillon-Lee, 13th Viscount Dillon, was a remarkable woman. Before her marriage in 1826 she had lived in Florence, and had attended the receptions of the countess of Albany, the widow of Charles Edward, the Young Pretender; and in London she had great influence in social and political circles. When he was patronage secretary her husband was described by Lord Palmerston as joint-whip with Mrs Stanley. Later in life Lady Stanley of Alderley helped to found the Women's Liberal Unionist Association, and she was a strenuous worker for the higher education of women, helping to establish Girton College, Cambridge, the Girls' Public Day School Company, and the Medical College for Women. She died on the 16 February 1895.

Text originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.