Personal data
William Petty
Born May 2, 1737  
in Dublin
Died May 7, 1805  
at Berkeley Square, London
1st Marquess of Lansdowne
The Earl of Shelburne

Son of John Fitzmaurice (1706-1761), 1st Earl of Shelburne. Married (ca. 1764) to Sophia Carteret (1745-1771), daughter of the 1st Earl Granville, with whom he had at least one child.1 Married (ca. 1779) to Louisa FitzPatrick (1755-1789), with whom he had at least two children.2

Boswell met Petty, Lord Shelburne, when he called on William Pitt on February 23, 1766, in London. Pitt was an ordinary MP at the time but he was appointed Prime Minister later that year and included Shelburne in his government as Southern Secretary.

  • 1John Henry Petty (1765-1809), who sat for almost twenty years as an MP, before he succeeded his father as Marquess of Lansdowne.
  • 2One being Henry Petty-FitzMaurice (1780-1863), who rose to serve as Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and a three-time Lord President of the Council. He succeeded his half-brother, John Henry, as Marquess of Lansdowne in 1809.
William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (Wikipedia)

Unless otherwise noted, the source for a dated quotation of Boswell's is generally the corresponding volume of the Yale Trade Editions of Boswell's journals.