The younger son of a Cornish gentleman, and an Oxford classmate of Lord Silverbridge. Though he was without fortune and had no profession, Lady Mary Palliser married him, despite the opposition of her father, the Duke of Omnium.

"He was beautiful to look at.... He was dark, with hair that was almost black ...with clear brown eyes, a nose as regular as Apollo's, and a mouth in which was ever to be found that expression of manliness, which of all characteristics is the one women love best. He was five feet ten in height. He was always well dressed, and yet always so dressed as to seem to show that his outward garniture had not been matter of trouble to him" - The Duke's Children.