Sir Gerard Noel Noel 2nd Bart. ne Edwardes

Born Tickencote, Rutland as Gerard Edwardes, son of Gerard Anne Edwardes of Welham, Leicestershire and Lady Jane Noel, daughter of Baptist Noel, 4th Earl of Gainsborough. His father was the illegitimate son of Lord Anne Hamilton, younger son of James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, by Mary Edwardes of Welham.
Succeed to his father-in-law’s baronetcy (Baron Barham) 17 June 1813.
Inherited the estates of his uncle, Henry 6th Earl of Gainsborough and took the name Noel by Royal Licence, 8 May 1798.

Married:
(1) Diana, daughter of Admiral Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, 21 December 1780; 1813 Diana succeeded on her father's death to the barony under a special remainder; separated from her "profligate and eccentric husband (who exhibited little interest in spiritual matters)"; moved to Fairy Hill, Gower peninsula, south Wales, and established "Lady Barham's Connexion", a body of six chapels (and a number of free schools) connected with the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists;
(2) Harriet, daughter of the Rev. Joseph Gill, vicar of Scraptoft, Leicestershire, 4 May 1823; (3) Isabella Evans Raymond, 11 August 1831

Children (18: 12 sons and 6 daughters) by marriage to Diana Middleton:
Charles (1781-1866; became Earl of Gainsborough, 1841)
Gerard Thomas (1782-1851; a canon of Winchester) [q.v.]
Horace (1783-1807)
Henry Robert (1784-1800)
Louisa Elizabeth (1785-1816; married the banker William Henry Hoare)
Sophia (1787-1787)
Emma (1788-1873)
William Middleton (1789-1859; MP for Rutland 1838-1840)
Frederick (1790-1833) Arthur Anne (1791-1793)
Charlotte Margaret (1792-1869)
Francis James (1793-1854; Rector of Teston and Nettlestead in Kent)
Berkeley Octavius (1794-1841)
Augusta Julia (1796-1833; married Thomas Babington [d. 1871], son of Jean Macaulay, nephew of Zacharay Macaulay)
Leland Noel (1797-1870; Vicar of Exton)
Baptist Wriothesley (1799-1873), Church of England clergyman and Baptist minister. See Oxford DNB entry
Juliana Hicks (1800-1855)
Edward Andrew (1802-1823)

Noel had another child, Harriet Jane Noel, born 15/11/1812 and baptised 04/03/1813 in St James, Westminster, with Harriet Gill, who later became his second wife. Noel married Harriet Gill 04/05/1823 in Marylebone, less than a month after the death of his first wife. Harriet Jane was described as the youngest daughter of Sir G. Noel Noel, Bart. M.P. when she married Don. Ysidro Lopez de Arze, of Tora, in Old Castile, Spain, 04/05/1833.

The Oxford DNB entry for Baptist Wriothesley Noel notes that the household 'combined whig politics, evangelical devotion, aristocratic unconventionality, and strong-mindedness in a potent blend'. And while there were strong connections to the abolitionist cause, especially through Gerard Thomas Noel and evangelical religion, Sir Gerard Noel appears to have been largely marginal to such concerns, though he did vote as an MP for the abolition of the slave trade in 1791.

Banker in Westminster. November 1792, became a partner in the newly founded London and Middlesex Bank; from 1805 with Davison & Co. of 34 Pall Mall.
But by 1816 his financial affairs in poor shape: his estates, of 15,000 acres worth £20,800 a year, were put into a trust to relieve his difficulties. (See Thorpe for details.)

He was MP for Maidstone (1784-1788) and Rutland (1788, 1808, 1814-1838) and though he began as a Whig moved increasingly to being a supporter of Tory governments but then back to Whiggery by 1830-1832.

He held various militia and county offices:
Captain of Rutland Militia 1779; Colonel of the Rutland Regiment of Fencible Cavalry 1794-1797; Lt.-Colonel of the Rutland Volunteer Infantry 1800; Captain then Major of the Rutland Legion of Volunteer Infantry 1803; High Steward of Campden, Gloucestershire, 1798; High Sheriff, Rutland 1812-1813.

Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part II, II, p. 392; Thorne (ed.), House of Commons, 1790-1820 (1986), vol. III; Oxford DNB, entries for Diana Noel, Gerard Thomas Noel  (1782–1851), Church of England clergyman, and Baptist Wriothesley Noel (1799–1873), Church of England clergyman and Baptist minister; Ancestry.com, Westminster, London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1919 [database online]; Ancestry.com, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936 [database online]; Belfast Newsletter 14/05/1833.

We are grateful to Bill Farebrother for his assistance with compiling this entry.