William Villiers, 3rd Earl of Jersey, 6th Viscount Grandison, (died 28 August 1769) was an English peer and politician from the Villiers family.

Life

He was the son of William Villiers, 2nd Earl of Jersey. Among other achievements, Villiers was a founding Governor of the Foundling Hospital, a charity which received its royal charter on 17 October 1739 to operate an orphanage for abandoned children in London. He was an infatuated admirer of Ann Thicknesse (aka Anne Ford) and he offered her £800 a year to be his mistress. When she refused, Lord Jersey tried to sabotage her initial public concert, but she earned £15 from it nonetheless. In 1761, she published a pamphlet, A Letter from Miss F—d to a Person of Distinction, defending her position. This in turn provoked a pamphlet from the Earl, A Letter to Miss F–d.

Private life

On 23 June 1733, he married Anne Russell, Dowager Duchess of Bedford (c. 1704/1709 – 1762). She was the daughter of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater, and widow of Wriothesley Russell, 3rd Duke of Bedford. They had two sons, but only one survived them: He commissioned the building of the previous Middleton Park, in Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire.