1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sheffield, John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of

SHEFFIELD, JOHN BAKER HOLROYD, 1st Earl of (1735–1821), English politician, came of a Yorkshire family, a branch of which had settled in Ireland. He inherited considerable wealth, and in 1769 bought Sheffield Place in Sussex from Lord de la Warr. Having served in the army he entered the House of Commons in 1780, and in that year was prominent against Lord George Gordon and the rioters. In 1783 he was created an Irish peer as Baron Sheffield of Roscommon, a barony of the United Kingdom (Sheffield of Sheffield, Yorks) being added in 1802. In 1816 he was created Viscount Pevensey and earl of Sheffield. He was a great authority on farming, and in 1803 he was made president of the Board of Agriculture; but he is chiefly remembered as the friend of Gibbon (q.v.), whose works he afterwards edited. His son and grandson succeeded as 2nd and 3rd earls, the latter (1832–1909) being a well-known patron of cricket, at whose death the earldom became extinct. The Irish barony, however, under a special remainder, passed to the 4th baron Stanley of Alderley, who thus became Baron Sheffield of Roscommon.