This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(November 2017) |
Grafton ministry | |
---|---|
1768–1770 | |
Date formed | 14 October 1768 |
Date dissolved | 28 January 1770 |
People and organisations | |
Monarch | George III |
Prime Minister | Duke of Grafton |
Total no. of members | 12 appointments |
Member parties | |
Status in legislature | Majority (coalition) 304 / 558 |
Opposition party | Grenvillites |
History | |
Legislature term(s) | 13th GB Parliament |
Predecessor | Chatham ministry |
Successor | North ministry |
The Grafton ministry was the British government headed by Prime Minister Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, in government from October 1768 to January 1770.
The Grafton ministry arose from the gradual decay of its predecessor, the Chatham ministry, which Grafton had effectively been leading for some time due to the illness and withdrawal from public affairs of its nominal head Lord Chatham. In order to maintain a comfortable parliamentary majority, Grafton had drawn the Bedford Whigs (Earl Gower, Viscount Weymouth, and the Earl of Hillsborough) into the ministry at the end of 1767. Although Grafton himself and many of the previous members of the government (including Chatham) supported a conciliatory policy towards Britain's restless American colonies, the Bedfords favoured stronger, more coercive measures, and the ministry, in spite of Grafton's own views, drifted towards the Bedford position. When this led to an attempt to replace the conciliatory Southern Secretary, Lord Shelburne, Chatham finally roused himself enough to resign from his position as Lord Privy Seal, leaving Grafton as the nominal as well as real head of a ministry in which the Bedford faction was now stronger than ever.
The government was widely criticised for its handling of foreign affairs, particularly for allowing the Republic of Corsica, a British ally, to fall to the French during the Corsican Crisis. It was subject to a series of attacks in what became known as the Junius Letters. With the resignation in January 1770 of Grafton himself, Lord Camden, and Lord Granby, Chatham's remaining adherents in the cabinet, the Grafton ministry was replaced by the North ministry under the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord North, which was to last until 1782.
Portfolio | Minister | Took office | Left office | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
First Lord of the Treasury | * | 14 October 1768 | 28 January 1770 | Whig | |
Lord Chancellor | 30 July 1766 | 17 January 1770 | Whig | ||
17 January 1770 | 20 January 1770 | Independent | |||
Lord President of the Council | 22 December 1767 | 24 November 1779 | Tory | ||
Lord Privy Seal | 1768 | 1770 | Independent | ||
11 September 1767 | 27 March 1782 | Tory | |||
Secretary of State for the Northern Department | 20 January 1768 | 21 October 1768 | Tory | ||
21 October 1768 | 19 December 1770 | Independent | |||
Secretary of State for the Southern Department | 30 July 1766 | 20 October 1768 | Whig | ||
The Viscount Weymouth | 21 October 1768 | 12 December 1770 | Tory | ||
Secretary of State for the Colonies | 27 February 1768 | 27 August 1772 | Independent | ||
First Lord of the Admiralty | 1766 | 1771 | Independent | ||
Master-General of the Ordnance | 14 May 1763 | 18 October 1770 | Independent | ||
Minister without Portfolio | 1768 | 1770 | Whig |
George Grenville was a British Whig statesman who rose to the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain. Grenville was born into an influential political family and first entered Parliament in 1741 as an MP for Buckingham. He emerged as one of Cobham's Cubs, a group of young members of Parliament associated with Lord Cobham.
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, better known by his courtesy title Lord North, which he used from 1752 to 1790, was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. He led Great Britain through most of the American War of Independence. He also held a number of other cabinet posts, including Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer.
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, was a British Whig and then a Tory politician during the late Georgian era. He served as Chancellor of the University of Oxford (1792–1809) and twice as Prime Minister of Great Britain (1783) and then of the United Kingdom (1807–1809). The gap of 26 years between his two terms as Prime Minister is the longest of any British Prime Minister. He was also the fourth great-grandfather of King Charles III through his great-granddaughter Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
Frederick John Robinson, 1st Earl of Ripon,, styled The Honourable F. J. Robinson until 1827 and known between 1827 and 1833 as The Viscount Goderich, the name by which he is best known to history, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1827 to 1828.
The first lord of the Treasury is the head of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury exercising the ancient office of Lord High Treasurer in the United Kingdom, and is a position held by the prime minister. This office is not equivalent to the usual position of the "treasurer" in other governments; the closer equivalent of a treasurer in the United Kingdom is the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is the second lord of the Treasury.
Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton,, styled Earl of Euston between 1747 and 1757, was a British Whig statesman of the Georgian era. He is one of a handful of dukes who have served as prime minister.
William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne,, was an Anglo-Irish Whig statesman who was the first home secretary in 1782 and then prime minister from 1782 to 1783 during the final months of the American War of Independence. He succeeded in securing peace with America and this feat remains his most notable legacy.
Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1754 to 1783 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Sydney. He held several important Cabinet posts in the second half of the 18th century. The cities of Sydney in Nova Scotia, Canada, and Sydney in New South Wales, Australia were named in his honour, in 1785 and 1788, respectively.
John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, was an 18th-century British statesman. Bedford was a leading Whig political figure around the time of the Seven Years' War, and negotiated the Treaty of Paris which ended the conflict in 1763. He was also an early promoter of cricket and a patron of the arts who commissioned many works from artists, most notably Canaletto.
Charles Yorke PC was briefly Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. His father was also Lord Chancellor, and he began his career as a Member of Parliament. He served successively as Solicitor-General and Attorney-General for several governments, during which he was best known for writing what became the Quebec Act. He was appointed Lord Chancellor over his objections, but he committed suicide only three days after taking the post.
Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, PC was an English lawyer, judge and Whig politician who was first to hold the title of Earl Camden. As a lawyer and judge he was a leading proponent of civil liberties, championing the rights of the jury, and limiting the powers of the State in leading cases such as Entick v Carrington.
William Pitt the Younger led the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain from 1783 to 1801.
The Bedford Whigs were an 18th-century British political faction, led by John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. Other than Bedford himself, notable members included John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich; Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Gower; Richard Rigby, who served as principal Commons manager for the group; Thomas Thynne, 3rd Viscount Weymouth; Edward Thurlow; and George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough
The Kingdom of Great Britain was governed by a caretaker government in April–June 1757—after the King's dismissal of William Pitt led to the collapse of the Pitt–Devonshire ministry amid the Seven Years' War. William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, continued as the nominal head of government.
The 1768 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 13th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707.
Sir John Wrottesley, 8th Baronet, of Wrottesley Hall in Staffordshire, was a British army officer and politician who was a Member of the British House of Commons from 1768 to 1787.
The first Rockingham ministry was a British ministry headed by the Marquess of Rockingham from 1765 to 1766 during the reign of King George III. The government was made up mainly of his followers known as the Rockingham Whigs. The most influential member of the government was the Duke of Newcastle, a former Prime Minister, who served as Lord Privy Seal. It is often referred to as the only government ever to have been made up almost entirely of members of the Jockey Club, with Rockingham himself being a prominent patron and follower of the turf. Rockingham was noted for his ignorance of foreign affairs, and his ministry failed to reverse the growing isolation of Britain within Europe.
This is a list of members of the government of the United Kingdom in office under the leadership of Spencer Perceval from 1809 to 1812.
The Chatham ministry was a British government led by William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham that ruled between 1766 and 1768. Because of Pitt's former prominence before his title, it is sometimes referred to as the Pitt ministry. Unusually for a politician considered to be Prime Minister, Pitt was not First Lord of the Treasury during the administration, but instead held the post of Lord Privy Seal.
In British politics, a Whig government may refer to the following British governments administered by the Whigs: