page_title: Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby
section_title: Family
hierarchical_section_title: Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby / Family
caption_attribution_description: Depicted person&#58; &#32;Emma Caroline Smith-Stanley, Countess of Derby&#32;– British countess
context_page_description: Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby KG GCMG PC PC was a British statesman, three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and, to date, the longest-serving leader of the Conservative Party. He was known before 1834 as Edward Stanley, and from 1834 to 1851 as Lord Stanley. He was scion of one of Britain's oldest, wealthiest and most powerful families. He is one of only four British prime ministers to have three or more separate periods in office. However, his ministries each lasted less than two years and totalled three years and 280 days. Derby abolished slavery, educated Ireland, and reformed Parliament.
  Historian Frances Walsh has written that it was Derby:
  who educated the party and acted as its strategist to pass the last great Whig measure, the 1867 Reform Act. It was his greatest achievement to create the modern Conservative Party in the framework of the Whig constitution, though it was Disraeli who laid claim to it.
  Scholars long ignored his role but in the 21st century rank him highly among all British prime ministers.
context_section_description: Stanley married The Hon. Emma Bootle-Wilbraham, the second daughter of Edward Bootle-Wilbraham, on 31 May 1825. He left three children:
  Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby (21 July 1826 – 21 April 1893). He married Lady Mary Sackville-West (daughter of George John Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr) on 5 July 1870.
  Lady Emma Charlotte Stanley (25 December 1835 – 23 August 1928). She married Wellington Patrick Manvers Chetwynd Talbot on 11 October 1860. They had eight children.
  Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby (15 January 1841 – 14 June 1908). He married Lady Constance Villiers (daughter of George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon) on 31 May 1864. They had ten children.
  Stanley's ancestors were Kings of Man from 1405 and later Lords of Man. Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby famously switched sides at the Battle of Bosworth and placed the crown of the fallen King Richard III upon the head of Henry Tudor.
caption: Emma Smith-Stanley
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