Background
Born Edward Hugessen Knatchbull, he was the younger son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet, who twice served as Paymaster-General, and his second wife Fanny Catherine Knight, who was a niece of author Jane Austen.
Born Edward Hugessen Knatchbull, he was the younger son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet, who twice served as Paymaster-General, and his second wife Fanny Catherine Knight, who was a niece of author Jane Austen.
Knatchbull-Hugessen was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Union.
He served as Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department under Lord Russell in 1866 and under William Ewart Gladstone from 1868 to 1871 and was also Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Gladstone from 1871 to 1874. In 1880 he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Brabourne. In 1849 he assumed by Royal licence the additional surname of Hugessen, which was the maiden surname of his father"s mother.
He served as a Lord of the Treasury under Lord Palmerston from 1859 to 1860, as Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs under Lord Russell in 1866 and under Gladstone from 1868 to 1871 and as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies under Gladstone from 1871 to 1874.
He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1873 and raised to the peerage as Baron Brabourne, of Brabourne in the County of Kent, in 1880. Brabourne edited the first edition of Jane Austen"s letters, published in 1884.
This edition included about two-thirds of her surviving letters, and was dedicated to Queen Victoria. He inherited the letters after his mother"s death in December 1882.
He also wrote short stories, one of which was published in The Gentlewoman in December 1891.
He died on 6 February 1893 at Smeeth Paddocks, and was buried at Smeeth, Kent, on 9 February. Honorary Katharine Cecilia Knatchbull-Hugessen (died 21 March 1926). Honorary Eva Mary Knatchbull-Hugessen (d 23 October 1895).
Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, 2nd Baron Brabourne (5 April 1857 – 29 December 1909).
Cecil Marcus Knatchbull-Hugessen, 4th Baron Brabourne (27 November 1863 – 15 February 1933). Lady Brabourne died on 2 May 1889, and on 3 June 1890 Lord Brabourne remarried Ethel Mary Walker, daughter of Colonel Sir George Gustavus Walker.
They had two children:
Honorary Adrian Norton Knatchbull-Hugessen (5 July 1891 – 30 March 1976).
Honorary Alicia Mary Dorothea Knatchbull-Hugessen (18 February 1893 – 15 January 1974).
17th United Kingdom Parliament. 18th United Kingdom Parliament. 19th United Kingdom Parliament.
20th United Kingdom Parliament.
21st United Kingdom Parliament]
In 1857 Knatchbull-Hugessen was elected Member of Parliament for Sandwich, a seat he would hold until 1880.
