Stanley, Edward Smith

Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby was a politician, peer, landowner, builder, farmer, art collector and naturalist. He was the patron of the writer Edward Lear.

In 1834 he succeeded his father as 13th Earl of Derby and withdrew from politics, instead concentrating on his natural history collection at Knowsley Hall, near Liverpool. He had a large collection of living animals; at his death there were 1,272 birds and 345 mammals at Knowsley, shipped to England by explorers such as Joseph Burke. From 1828 to 1833 he was President of the Linnean Society. Several species were named after him. He was President of the Zoological Society 1831-1851.