Sir Culling Eardley, 3rd Baronet

Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, 3rd Baronet (né Smith; 21 April 1805 – 21 May 1863) was a British Christian campaigner for religious freedom and for the Protestant cause, one of the founders of the Evangelical Alliance.

Born in London, his father, Sir Culling Smith, 2nd Baronet (1768–1829), was of Huguenot extraction and his mother, Charlotte Elizabeth (d. 15 Sept 1826) was the daughter of Sampson Eardley, 1st Baron Eardley, and hence the granddaughter of Jewish financier Sampson Gideon. Though the title Baron Eardley had not survived, Charlotte Elizabeth was heiress to much of the Eardley estate.

Smith attended Eton College and Oriel College, Oxford where, though he passed his BA examinations, he never graduated, having become a convinced evangelical Christian. He succeeded to his baronetcy on his father's death in 1829 and married Isabella Carr (died 1 May 1860) in 1832. They had one son, Eardley Gideon Culling Eardley (1838–1875), and two daughters. He inherited Bedwell Park, Hertfordshire from his father. From his cousin William Thomas Eardley-Twisleton-Fiennes, 15th Baron Saye and Sele he inherited Belvedere, Erith, Kent and the Eardley estates in 1847 and changed his name from Smith to Eardley by royal licence.

An instinctive campaigner with an interest in reform of the poor laws, Eardley was briefly Liberal Member of Parliament for Pontefract from 1830 to 1831. Though he stood again, unsuccessfully, in the 1837 general election, his principal driver was his religious faith. He served as High Sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1858.

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