Sir Edmund Antrobus, 3rd Baronet

Sir Edmund Antrobus, 3rd Baronet DL (3 September 1818 – 1 April 1899) was a British politician as Member of Parliament for Surrey Eastern for 6 years as a Conservative and Wilton for 22 as a Whig/Liberal.

Sir Edmund and the Old Surrey Fox Hounds at the Foot of Addington Hills by William Barraud (1810-1851)

Sir Edmund was the eldest son of Sir Edmund Antrobus, 2nd Baronet, and Anne Lindsay of Antrobus Hall, Cheshire and Amesbury Abbey, also a stately home in Wiltshire, and educated at St John's College, Cambridge.[1] The elder Sir Edmund owned and ran a number of sugar plantations in Jamaica, British Guiana and St Kitts. At the time of emancipation in the 1830s, the British government compensated him for the ownership of over 500 slaves across eight estates in the West Indies.[2]

The younger Edmund married Marianne Georgiana Dashwood on 11 February 1847, and with her had six children: Louisa Emma, Edmund (4th Baronet), Robert Lindsay, Cosmo (5th Baronet), and two other daughters.

His land included the ancient monument Stonehenge. During his lifetime he refused to let the government agency for the preservation of ancient monuments even look at the property. It was rumored that an anonymous buyer wanted to buy the stones and take them to the United States; if Antrobus had accepted the offer, no one could have stopped him.[3] He was painted while hunting with the long-defunct Old Surrey Fox Hounds at Addington, Surrey during his time as MP for the same area, by animal painter William Barraud.

He was first elected as one of two MPs for East Surrey in 1841, won a re-election and both MPs were then defeated in 1847 by Liberal candidates. He was subsequently elected as a Whig/Liberal MP for Wilton in 1855, the same party as the incumbent who had resigned to serve as a Special Commissioner in Ireland. He succeeded to the Baronetcy upon the death of his father on 4 May 1870. He served until 1877 when he resigned. He was High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1880.[1] On his death the Baronetcy passed to his eldest son and namesake, Sir Edmund Antrobus, 4th Baronet.