Page "William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne" Paragraph 1

Born in London to an aristocratic Whig family, son of Sir Penniston Lamb and Elizabeth Milbanke Lamb, Viscountess Melbourne ( 1751 – 1818 ) and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he fell in with a group of Romantic Radicals that included Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron.

In 1805 he succeeded his elder brother as heir to his father's title and he married Lady Caroline Ponsonby.

The next year he was elected to the British House of Commons as the Whig MP for Leominster.

For the election in 1806 he was moved to the seat of Haddington burghs and for the 1807 election successfully stood for Portarlington ( a seat he held until 1812 ).