George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley

The Most Honourable The Marquess of Cholmondeley KG GCH PC
The Marquess of Cholmondeley by Pompeo Batoni, 1772, Houghton Hall, Norfolk.
Lord Steward of the Household
In office 19 February 1812 – 11 December 1821
Monarch	George III George IV
Prime Minister	The Earl of Liverpool
Preceded by	The Earl of Aylesford
Succeeded by	The Marquess Conyngham
Personal details
Born	11 May 1749
Died	10 April 1827 (1827-04-11) (aged 77)
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Lady Georgiana Charlotte Bertie (d. 1838)

George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley KG GCH PC (/ˈtʃʌmli/; 11 May 1749 – 10 April 1827), styled Viscount Malpas between 1764 and 1770 and known as The Earl of Cholmondeley between 1770 and 1815, was a British peer and politician.

Cholmondeley was the son of George Cholmondeley, Viscount Malpas, and Hester Edwardes. George Cholmondeley, 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley, was his grandfather. He was a direct descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. He was educated at Eton. In January 1776, Cholmondeley began an affair with the noted beauty Grace Dalrymple Elliot, allegedly taking her up during a Pantheon masquerade ball. Grace was legally separated from her husband, Dr. John Eliot, who was to divorce her several months later. This liaison lasted for three years.

In 1770 he succeeded his grandfather as fourth Earl of Cholmondeley and entered the House of Lords. In April 1783, Cholmondeley was admitted to the Privy Council and appointed Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard in the government of the Duke of Portland, a post he held until December the same year. He remained out of office for the next 29 years, but in 1812 he was made Lord Steward of the Household in Spencer Perceval's Tory administration. He continued in the post after Lord Liverpool became Prime Minister after Perceval's assassination in May 1812, holding it until 1821.