George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke

He was born Lord Herbert at the family home, Wilton House in Wilton, he was the only son of Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke and 7th Earl of Montgomery and his wife, Elizabeth, the second daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough.[1] He had a younger sister Charlotte, who died at the age of 10. He was educated at home and then Harrow School from 1770 to 1775. Through his grandmother Mary FitzWilliam, daughter of the 5th Viscount FitzWilliam, he inherited the substantial FitzWilliam estates in Dublin.

After leaving Harrow, Herbert was appointed an ensign in the 12th Regiment of Foot in 1775 and travelled the continent over the next five years, visiting France, Austria, Eastern Europe, Russia and Italy with Rev. William Coxe and Capt. John Floyd.

Herbert was promoted to a lieutenant in 1777 and became a captain in the 75th Regiment of Foot in 1778, before transferring to 1st The Royal Dragoons later that year. In 1781, he transferred to the 22nd Light Dragoons and the following year was promoted to a lieutenant-colonel in the 2nd Dragoon Guards.

At the start of the French Revolutionary Wars, Herbert saw action in Flanders, where he commanded the 2nd and 3rd Dragoon Guards and liaised with Prussian and Austrian forces. He was also active in the Siege of Valenciennes (1793) and captured an enemy post at Hundssluyt, near Dunkirk, later that year.

Herbert married twice, firstly on 8 April 1787, to Elizabeth Beauclerk (d. 1793), his first cousin, the daughter of Topham Beauclerk by his wife, Diana. By his first wife he had the following progeny:

• George Herbert (1788–1793), eldest son and heir apparent who predeceased his father aged 5.
• Lady Diana Herbert (1790–1841), who married Welbore Agar, 2nd Earl of Normanton;
• Robert Herbert, 12th Earl of Pembroke (19 September 1791 – 25 April 1862), previously styled Viscount Herbert, who married Ottavia Spinelli and died without legitimate issue. By his mistress Alexina Sophia Gallot he had an illegitimate daughter.
• Hon. Charles Herbert (1793–1798)

His second married was on 25 January 1808 to Countess Catherine Semyonovna Vorontsova, a daughter of the prominent Russian aristocrat and diplomat Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov. Her letters show her to have been a shrewd observer of European politics, allowing for a pro-Russian slant to her opinions.[2] By his second wife he had progeny as follows:

• Lady Elizabeth Herbert (1809–1858), who married Richard Meade, 3rd Earl of Clanwilliam and had issue.
• Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea (16 September 1810 – 2 August 1861), who by his wife Elizabeth had issue.
• Lady Mary Herbert [3] (1813–1892) who married George Brudenell-Bruce, 2nd Marquess of Ailesbury, died without issue.
• Lady Catherine Herbert (31 October 1814 – 12 February 1886) who married Alexander Murray, 6th Earl of Dunmore and had issue;
• Lady Georgiana Herbert (1817–1841) who married (as his first wife) Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne but had no issue;
• Lady Emma Herbert (1819–1884) who married Thomas Vesey, 3rd Viscount de Vesci and had issue.

Lord Pembroke died on 26 October 1827 at his London home, Pembroke House and was buried at Wilton on 12 November. After having previously quarreled with his eldest surviving son, Robert, over the latter's marriage to the widowed Italian princess, Octavia Spinelli de Rubari, Pembroke left the bulk of his unentailed and personal estate to his only son by his second wife, Sidney (later created Baron Herbert of Lea).

• S. M. Farrell. "Herbert, George Augustus, eleventh earl of Pembroke and eighth earl of Montgomery (1759–1827), army officer and landowner". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 12 March 2008.
• Cokayne et al., The Complete Peerage