Edward Sartoris

Edward John Sartoris was born on 30 May 1814 in London. He was the eldest son of Peter Urban Sartoris, a Huguenot banker with familial ties to Sceaux near Paris, and his wife Matilda Tunno, the daughter of Scottish-American banker John Tunno. Sartoris received his education at Trinity College, Cambridge.

In 1842, he married Adelaide Kemble, an opera singer. The Sartoris family initially leased Knuston Hall near Irchester, Northamptonshire. In 1863, upon the death of his maternal uncle, Edward Tunno, Sartoris inherited estates at Warnford in Hampshire and Llangennech in Carmarthenshire, which included substantial coal deposits.

Sartoris became involved in politics as a member of the Liberal Party. The constituency of Carmarthenshire in Wales was represented in the House of Commons by two MPs. Before 1868, elections in the area had typically been uncontested and the MPs were predominantly Conservatives, selected by the influential Campbell family, Earls Cawdor. Following the enactment of the Reform Act 1867, which expanded the electorate to include a significant number of working-class men, the Liberal Party in Carmarthenshire decided to contest the 1868 general election.

Choosing Sartoris as their candidate marked a departure from their usual practice of selecting local landowners; instead, they favored a candidate perceived as an outsider, unaligned with traditional landowning interests. Sartoris's residence in Llanelli, a rapidly industrializing town, and the organized efforts of non-conformist clergy in the district contributed to his electoral victory. In that election, he received 3,280 votes, securing the first seat in the constituency.

However, in the subsequent 1874 election, the Conservative candidate Earl Cawdor’s eldest son, Viscount Emlyn, reclaimed the seat. After his defeat, Sartoris retired from parliamentary politics and from public life, moving to his estate at Warnford Park in Hampshire in 1874.

Edward Sartoris and Adelaide Kemble had several children: Greville Edward (1843–1873); Mary (May) Theodosia (1845–1925), who married Henry Evans Gordon, a member of the London Stock Exchange and brother of MP William Evans-Gordon; and Algernon Charles Frederick (1851–1893), who married Ellen (Nellie) Wrenshall Grant in 1874 at the White House. Sartoris was known as a justice of the peace for Hampshire, and engaged in sports such as yachting, with his yacht May winning the Hamble River Regatta in 1878.

He died on 23 November 1888 in Hampshire at the age of 74. Sartoris was related to French politician Henri Greffulhe as a cousin and was the nephew of Edward Rose Tunno.