Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harbord, Edward

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HARBORD, EDWARD, third Baron Suffield (1781–1835), born 10 Nov. 1781, was third and youngest son of Sir Harbord Harbord, first Lord Suffield, by his wife Mary, daughter and coheiress of Sir Ralph Assheton, bart., of Middleton, Lancashire. He sat in the House of Commons as M.P. for Great Yarmouth from 1806 to 1812, and as M.P. for Shaftesbury in 1820-1. Lord Castlereagh, foreign secretary in Lord Liverpool's administration from 1812 to 1822, sent him abroad on some minor diplomatic work, but Harbord declined Castlereagh's offer of a private secretaryship. In 1819, to the disgust of his family, he declared himself a liberal at a public meeting held at Norwich to petition for an inquiry into the Peterloo massacre. In 1821 he succeeded on his brother's death as third baron Suffield, and in the House of Lords supported liberal measures with much earnestness. He framed a bill for the better discipline of prisons, the chief clauses of which were adopted in the new law on the subject passed in 1824 (4 Geo. IV, c. 64); and he secured a relaxation of the Game Laws, and the abolition of spring-guns. From 1822 onwards Suffield, persistently, and almost single-handedly, advocated in the House of Lords the total abolition of the slave-trade, and sat on numerous committees of inquiry appointed by the house. He lived much on his estates in Norfolk, where he was an active chairman of quarter-sessions. He was a good landlord and allotted land to his cottagers. His love of athletics made him generally popular, and he established the Norfolk cricket club. He died from the effects of a fall from his horse on Constitution Hill, at his London house in Park Place, 6 July 1835. He married, (1) on 19 Sept. 1809, Georgina Venables (d. 30 Sept. 1824), daughter of George, second lord Vernon, by whom he had two sons and a daughter; and (2), on 12 Sept. 1826, Emily, daughter of Evelyn Shirley of Eatington Hall, Warwickshire, by whom he had six sons and a daughter.

Suffield was author of: 1. 'Remarks respecting the Norfolk County Gaol, with some general Observations on Prison Discipline,' London, 1822, 8vo; and 2. 'Considerations on the Game Laws,' London and Norwich, 1824, 8 vo, 2nd edit. 1825.

[Gent. Mag. 1835, pt. ii. 317-20; Burke's Peerage ; Brit. Mus. Cat.]