Sir William Morton Eden, 7th and 5th Baronet (4 April 1849 – 20 February 1915) was a British politician and artist. His third son was Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
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Early life
William Morton Eden was born at Windlestone Hall, a Greek revival stately home, in County Durham on 4 April 1849. He was the second son of eleven children born to the former Elfrida Susanna Harriet Iremonger (1825–1885) and Sir William Eden, 4th Baronet (1803–1873), who was described as "a sober and pious man".
On his paternal side, he had many prominent relatives including aunt Caroline Eden Parker (wife of Vice-Admiral Hyde Parker), and uncles: the Rt. Rev. Robert Eden (Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church), Lt. Gen. George Morton Eden, and Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Eden, Second Naval Lord. His maternal grandfather was William Iremonger, Esq. of Wherwell Priory.
Baronetage
After the death of his twenty-year-old uncle, Sir Frederick Eden became 3rd Baronet, in 1814, his then eleven-year-old father (the second son of scholar and social justice advocate Sir Frederick Eden, 2nd Baronet) became the 4th Baronet of Maryland. The baronetcy of Maryland had been created in 1776 for his great-grandfather, Sir Robert Eden, the last Royal Governor of Maryland. In 1844, Sir William's father also succeeded as the 6th Baronet of West Auckland after the death of his first cousin once removed, Sir Robert Johnson-Eden, 5th Baronet. The baronetcy of West Auckland had been created in 1672 for Sir Robert Eden, MP for County Durham, whose father was a Royalist supporter during the English Civil War.