High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! George William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon KG, GCB, PC (January 12 1800 - June 27 1870), was an English diplomat and statesman. Born in London on January 12 1800, George Villiers was the eldest son of the Hon. George Villiers (1759-1827) and Theresa Parker. Young George Villiers entered upon life in circumstances which gave small promise of his future career. Certainly, he was well born; he was heir presumptive to an earldom; his mother was a woman of great energy, admirable good sense, and high feeling. But the means of his family were contracted; his education was desultory and incomplete; he lacked the advantages of a training either at a public school or in the House of Commons. George went up to Cambridge at the early age of sixteen and entered St John's College on June 29 1816. In 1820, as the eldest son of an earl's brother with royal descent, he was able to take his M.A. degree under the statutes of the university then in force. In the same year, he was appointed attache to the British embassy at Saint Petersburg.