George Harcourt

George Granville Harcourt (né Venables-Harcourt and Vernon-Harcourt, 6 August 1785 – 19 December 1861) was a British Whig and then Conservative Party politician.

Background
Harcourt was the eldest son of clergyman Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt.

Political career
Harcourt was elected as MP for Lichfield in 1806 and which he represented until he was elected for Oxfordshire in 1831. By 1850 he had become the longest-serving member, and so became the Father of the House of Commons for the last 11 years of his life.

Family
On 27 March 1815, he married Lady Elizabeth Bingham (the eldest daughter of the 2nd Earl of Lucan) and they had one child, Elizabeth Lavinia Anne (d. 1858, married Montagu Bertie, 6th Earl of Abingdon. It was through this marriage that Wytham Abbey passed to the Earls of Abingdon). Harcourt's wife died in 1838 and he then married Frances Waldegrave (the widow of the 7th Earl Waldegrave and future wife of the 1st Baron Carlingford), a daughter of the noted tenor, John Braham.