ColonelHenry George Herbert, 2nd Earl of CarnarvonDL, FSA (3 June 1772 – 16 April 1833),[1] styled The Honourable Henry Herbert from 1780 to 1793 and Lord Porchester from 1793 to 1811, was a British peer, nobleman, and Whig politician.
Arms of 2nd Earl of Carnarvon, four-quarters (Herbert, Talbot, de Vere, Sawyer of Highclere: Azure, a fess chequy sable and or between three sea-pies (proper?)) with inescutcheon of Acland of Pixton quartering Dyke of Pixton. Brushford Church, Somerset, above the effigy of his great grandson Hon. Aubrey Herbert (1880–1923), of Pixton Park, Somerset, second son of the 4th Earl
On 26 April 1796, he married the heiress Elizabeth "Kitty" Acland (d.1813), at St George's Hanover Square.[2] She was the only daughter and eventual heiress of Col. John Dyke Acland (1747–1778), son and heir apparent of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 7th Baronet (1722–1785) of Killerton, Devon, and Petherton Park in Somerset, who acquired Pixton Park, Tetton, Kingston St Mary, and Holnicote, Setworthy by his marriage to the heiress Elizabeth Dyke (d.1753). Her brother was Sir John Dyke Acland, 8th Baronet, who died aged 7.[2] Carnarvon inherited from his wife the substantial Somerset estates of Pixton and Tetton. Kitty died at Shooter's Hill in 1813; Herbert survived her for twenty years until 1833.[6] By his wife he had five children, three daughters and two sons.[7]
Lady Harriet Elizabeth Herbert (b. 1797), who married Rev. J. C. Stapylton.
He died, aged 60, at his London residence in Grosvenor Square and was buried at BurghclereinHampshire.[6] He was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son, Henry.[6]
"Porchester's Post", Exmoor, Somerset, viewed in 2005, erected by the 2nd Earl of Carnarvon in 1796, the year of his marriage
The westernmost boundary of the historic estate of Pixton Park in Somerset is marked by "Porchester's Post", a 10-foot high oak obelisk first erected in 1796 for that purpose, by the 2nd Earl of Carnarvon, of Highclere CastleinHampshire, husband of Elizabeth "Kitty" Acland, heiress of Pixton, whom he had married that year. He was then aged 24 and until his father's death in 1811 was known by his courtesy title of Lord Porchester. It is located high up on Exmoor between Withypool Hill and Halscombe Allotment (grid reference SS 828 334), 7 miles north-west of Pixton Park. It was renewed and re-erected in 2002 by the Exmoor National Park Authority. A brass plaque attached to it is inscribed as follows:[8]
"First erected in 1796 to mark the boundary of the Carnarvon Estate. Re-erected in memory of Lord Porchester, Earl of Carnarvon, the Chairman of the 1977 inquiry into the protection of moorland on Exmoor and to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 2002".
Cokayne, George Edward (1913). Vicary Gibbs (ed.). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Vol. III. Exeter: William Pollard Co. Ltd.
Thorne, R. G. (1986). The House of Commons, 1790-1820. Vol. I. London: Secker & Warburg. ISBN0-436-52101-6.
Burke, John (1832). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Vol. I (4th ed.). London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley.
Debrett, John (1828). Debrett's Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. I (17th ed.). London: G. Woodfall.
Sylvanus, Urban (1833). The Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. part I. London: John Bowyer Nichols and Son.
