George Wyndham | |
|---|---|
| 3rd Earl of Egremont | |
 | |
| Born | 18 December 1751 Petworth House, Sussex, England |
| Died | 11 November 1837 (aged 85) Petworth House, West Sussex |
| Spouse(s) |
Elizabeth Ilive (m. 1801) |
| Issue | 40+ illegitimate children, including: George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield General Sir Henry Wyndham |
| Father | Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont |
| Mother | Hon. Alicia Maria Carpenter |
| Occupation | agriculturist |
George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont FRS (18 December 1751 – 11 November 1837) of Petworth House in Sussex and Orchard Wyndham in Somerset, was a British peer, a major landowner and a great art collector. He was interested in the latest scientific advances. He was an agriculturist and a friend of the agricultural writer Arthur Young, and was an enthusiastic canal builder who invested in many commercial ventures for the improvement of his estates. He played a limited role in politics.
He was a great patron of art and the painter J. M. W. Turner lived for a while at his Sussex seat of Petworth House. Several other painters including John Constable, C. R. Leslie, George Romney, the sculptor John Flaxman, and other talented artists received commissions from Wyndham, who filled his house with valuable works of art. The earl was a sponsor of the Petworth Emigration Scheme intended to relieve rural poverty caused by overpopulation. Generous and hospitable, blunt and eccentric, the earl was in his day a very prominent figure in English society. Charles Greville assessed him as "immensely rich and his munificence was equal to his wealth" and wrote that "in his time Petworth was like a great inn."
Though Wyndham had more than 40 children, the only legitimate one died in infancy. Lord Egremont was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew George Wyndham, 4th Earl of Egremont (1786-1845), but bequeathed his unentailed estates, namely the former Percy estates including Petworth House in Sussex, Leconfield Castle in Yorkshire and Egremont Castle in Cumbria, to his eldest illegitimate son Col. George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield (5 June 1787 – 18 March 1869).