Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl Stanhope

The son of James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, and Lucy Pitt, he succeeded to his father's titles in 1721. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society from 1735, and had a lifelong interest in mathematics. Stanhope was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1774.^[1] He privileged the pursuit of science and mathematics over politics and became close to prominent natural philosophers such as Joseph Priestley and Benjamin Franklin. As a patron of various mathematicians, Stanhope came into contact with Thomas Bayes, one of the founders of Bayesian inference.^[2]

On 25 July 1745, Stanhope married Grizel Hamilton, daughter of Charles Hamilton, Lord Binning. They had two sons:

• Philip Stanhope, Viscount Mahon (24 June 1746 – 6 July 1763).
• Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope (3 August 1753 – 15 December 1816).^[3]