Page "Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury" Paragraph 54

Lord Salisbury was the second son of the 2nd Marquess of Salisbury, a minor Conservative politician.

In 1857, he defied his father and married Georgina Alderson.

She was the daughter of Sir Edward Alderson, a moderately notable jurist and so of much lower social standing than the Cecils.

The marriage proved a happy one.

Robert and Georgina had eight children, all but one of whom survived infancy.