Chesham was born on 29 October 1815 into the Cavendish family, headed by the Duke of Devonshire.{{cite book |title=Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage: Comprising Information Concerning All Persons Bearing Hereditary Or Courtesy Titles, Knights, and Companions of All the Various Orders, and the Collateral Branches of All Peers and Baronets |date=1862 |publisher=Dean & Son, Limited |page=87 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RdoNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA87 |language=en}} He was the eldest son of Charles Compton Cavendish, 1st Baron Chesham and the former Lady Catherine Susan Gordon. He had two younger sisters, Hon. Susan Sophia Cavendish (wife of Thomas Trevor, 22nd Baron Dacre) and Hon. Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish (second wife of George Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford).

His father was the fourth son of George Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington (himself the third son of former Prime Minister William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire) and Lady Elizabeth Compton (only child of Charles Compton, 7th Earl of Northampton). His maternal grandparents were George Gordon, 9th Marquess of Huntly and the former Catherine Cope (second daughter and co-heiress of Sir Charles Cope, 2nd Baronet).

He was educated at Eton College.Peter W. Hammond, editor, The Complete Peerage or a History of the House of Lords and All its Members From the Earliest Times, Volume XIV: Addenda & Corrigenda (Stroud, Gloucestershire, U.K.: Sutton Publishing, 1998), page 169

Career

From 1833 to 1840, Cavendish served as an Officer in the 10th Light Dragoons. His father commissioned the famous architect Edward Blore to build a new family home, known as Latimer House, which was completed in 1838.{{NHLE|num=1000370|desc=Latimer Park |accessdate=8 July 2014}}

In 1847, he was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Peterborough, a seat he held until 1852, and later represented Buckinghamshire, serving alongside Benjamin Disraeli from 1857 to 1863,{{cite book |last1=Disraeli |first1=Benjamin |last2=Gunn |first2=John Alexander Wilson |last3=Wiebe |first3=Melvin George |title=Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1857-1859 |date=1982 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-8728-7 |page=533 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oQj3WHhDjYYC&pg=PA533 |language=en}} when he succeeded his father in the barony and took his seat in the House of Lords.Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, {{Page needed |date=February 2013}} His father, a Member of Parliament for nearly forty years, had been created Baron Chesham of Chesham on 15 January 1858.

In 1876, he served as president of the Royal Agricultural Society.G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, [https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo02coka The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant], new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume III, page 163

Personal life

On 24 July 1849, Lord Chesham married Henrietta Frances Lascelles (1830–1884) at Kensington Church in London. She was a daughter of Comptroller of the Household Right Hon. William Lascelles (third son of Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood) and his wife Lady Caroline Georgiana Howard (a daughter of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle). Together, they were the parents of:

Charles Compton William Cavendish, 3rd Baron Chesham (1850–1907), who married Lady Beatrice Constance Grosvenor, second daughter of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster and Lady Constance Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (fourth daughter of George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland). After his death, she married Maj. John Alexander Moncrieffe in 1910.
Hon. Georgiana Caroline Cavendish (1852–1937), who married, as his second wife, Thomas Coke, 2nd Earl of Leicester, in 1875.
Hon. Mary Susan Caroline Cavendish (1853–1937), who married Charles Lyttelton, 8th Viscount Cobham, in 1878.
Hon. Katherine Caroline Cavendish (1857–1941), who married, as his second wife, Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, in 1882.
Hon. William Edwin Cavendish (1862–1931), who married Elizabeth Janet Baillie, sister of Sir George Baillie, 3rd Baronet, in 1885.

Lord Chesham died in June 1882, aged 66, at Latimer House, Latimer, Buckinghamshire. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son Charles. His widow died nearly two years later on 21 May 1884.{{cite web |title=Chesham, Baron (UK, 1858) |url=http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/chesham1858.htm |website=cracroftspeerage.co.uk |publisher=Heraldic Media Limited |access-date=3 June 2020}}