Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, PC (24 February 1733 – 30 June 1800) 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.
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, commonly known as the Privy Council of the United Kingdom or simply the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords.
The House of Commons is the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada and historically was the name of the lower houses of the Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Southern Ireland. Roughly equivalent bodies in other countries which were once part of the British Empire include the United States House of Representatives, the Australian House of Representatives, the New Zealand House of Representatives, and India's Lok Sabha.
A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks.
Raynham Hall is a country house in Norfolk, England. For nearly 400 years it has been the seat of the Townshend family. The hall gave its name to the five estate villages, known as The Raynhams, and is reported to be haunted, providing the scene for possibly the most famous ghost photo of all time, the famous Brown Lady descending the staircase. However, the ghost has been allegedly seen infrequently since the photo was taken. Its most famous resident was Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (1674–1738), leader in the House of Lords.
The Honourable Thomas Townshend, of Frognal House, Kent, was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons for 52 years from 1722 to 1774.
Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, was an English Whig statesman. He served for a decade as Secretary of State for the Northern Department, 1714–1717, 1721–1730. He directed British foreign policy in close collaboration with his brother-in-law, prime minister Robert Walpole. He was often known as Turnip Townshend because of his strong interest in farming turnips and his role in the British Agricultural Revolution.
Whitchurch is a town in Hampshire, England. It is on the River Test, 13 miles (21 km) south of Newbury, Berkshire, 12 miles (19 km) north of Winchester, 8 miles (13 km) east of Andover and 12 miles (19 km) west of Basingstoke. Much of the town is a Conservation Area. Because of the amount of wildlife in and near the River Test, its course and banks are designated as Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England. The county town is the city of Winchester. Its two largest cities, Southampton and Portsmouth, are administered separately as unitary authorities; the rest of the county is governed by Hampshire County Council.
Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne and 1st Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme, was a British Whig statesman, whose official life extended throughout the Whig supremacy of the 18th century. He is commonly known as the Duke of Newcastle.
He held the offices of Clerk of the Household to the Prince of Wales (1756–60) and Clerk of the Green Cloth from 1761 to 1762. In 1765 he was also made a Lord of the Treasury in the first Rockingham ministry and continued in that office in the Pitt (then Lord Chatham) administration until December 1767, when he became a member of the Privy Council and joint-Paymaster of the Forces. During the ministry of Lord Chatham and the Duke of Grafton he supported the position his cousin Charles Townshend was in with regard to the American revenue program. Townshend was forced out of office in June 1768 by Grafton who wanted Rigby as Paymaster of the Forces to gain favour with the Duke of Bedford.[2]
The Clerk of the Green Cloth was a position in the British Royal Household. The clerk acted as secretary of the Board of Green Cloth, and was therefore responsible for organising royal journeys and assisting in the administration of the Royal Household. From the Restoration, there were four clerks. Two additional clerks comptrollers were added in 1761, but one of these was redesignated a clerk in 1762.
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham,, styled The Hon. Charles Watson-Wentworth before 1733, Viscount Higham between 1733 and 1746, Earl of Malton between 1746 and 1750 and The Marquess of Rockingham in 1750 was a British Whig statesman, most notable for his two terms as Prime Minister of Great Britain. He became the patron of many Whigs, known as the Rockingham Whigs, and served as a leading Whig grandee. He served in only two high offices during his lifetime, but was nonetheless very influential during his one and a half years of service.
The Paymaster of the Forces was a position in the British government. The office was established 1661 one year after the Restoration of the Monarchy to King Charles II, and was responsible for part of the financing of the British Army, in the improved form created by Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth. The full title was Paymaster-General of His Majesty's Forces. It was abolished in 1836, near the end of the reign of King William IV, and was replaced by the new post of Paymaster General.
Townshend remained in opposition until the end of Lord North's ministry and spoke frequently in the House of Commons against the American war. Although he had no close party connection, he was inclined toward the Chathamites. He took office again as secretary at war in the second Rockingham ministry. When Lord Shelburne became Prime Minister in July 1782, Townshend succeeded him as Home Secretary and became Leader of the House of Commons.
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 Petty, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first Home Secretary in 1782 and then Prime Minister in 1782–83 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. He was also well known as a collector of antiquities and works of art.
The Leader of the House of Commons is generally a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Commons.
Among the matters requiring attention that he inherited from Shelburne was a scheme for attacking the Spanish possessions in South America. A memorandum which Shelburne wrote to him at this time listing matters requiring his urgent attention said: "Preparations and Plans for W. India [Spanish America]. Expeditions require to be set forward—Major Dalrymple has a Plan against the Spanish Settlements".[3] For assistance in planning the expedition, Townshend turned to Captain Arthur Phillip.[4] The plan drawn up by Phillip and approved by Townshend in September 1782 was for a squadron of three ships of the line and a frigate to mount a raid on Buenos Aires and Monte Video, from there to proceed to the coasts of Chile, Peru and Mexico to maraud, and ultimately to cross the Pacific to join the British East Indian squadron for an attack on Manila, the capital of the Spanish Philippines.[5] The expedition sailed on 16 January 1783, under the command of Commodore Sir Robert Kingsmill.[6] Phillip was given command of one of the ships of the line, the 64-gun HMSEuropa, or Europe.[7] Shortly after sailing an armistice was concluded between Great Britain and Spain. Phillip took the Europe to India to join the British East Indian squadron, but after his return to England in April 1784, remained in close contact with Townshend (now Lord Sydney) and the Home Office Under Secretary, Evan Nepean. From October 1784 to September 1786 he was employed by Nepean, who was in charge of the Secret Service relating to the Bourbon Powers, France and Spain, to spy on the French naval arsenals at Toulon and other ports.[8]
Admiral Arthur Phillip was a Royal Navy officer and the first Governor of New South Wales who founded the British penal colony that later became the city of Sydney, Australia.
Sir Robert Brice Kingsmill, 1st Baronet was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned nearly 60 years. Kingsmill was a contemporary and close friend of Lord Nelson, and was one of the prominent Royal Navy admirals of his time referred to as "The Conquerors of the Seas," illustrated in Piercy Roberts' 1800 engraving. He served with Rodney in the West Indies, where he was wounded in battle, and with Keppel at the Battle of Ushant. He took the time to embark on a career in politics as a Member of Parliament, giving this up several times to resume his service in the Navy when war broke out. Kingsmill rose to flag rank by the time of the outbreak of war with revolutionary France in 1793. As the naval commander-in-chief on the coast of Ireland, he repelled several attempts by the French to invade Ireland and foment insurrection. Kingsmill died on 23 November 1805 at Sydmonton Court as a baronet and with the rank of Admiral of the Blue.
HMS Europa was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 21 April 1765 at Lepe, Hampshire. She was renamed HMS Europe in 1778, and spent the rest of her career under this name.
Townshend was created Baron Sydney of Chislehurst and entered the House of Lords on 6 March 1783.[9] He originally proposed his title to be Baron Sidney, in honour of his kinsman, the renowned opponent of royal tyranny, Algernon Sidney, however he was worried that other members of his family might have claims on it and then suggested Sydenham, the name of a village near his home in Kent, before settling on Sydney.[10] He opposed the Fox-North coalition and returned to political office with Pitt, serving as Home Secretary from 1783 to 1789.
In Canada, Sydney, Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island (now the province of Nova Scotia), was founded by British Col. Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres in 1785, and named in honour of Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney (Home Secretary in the British cabinet at the time). Lord Sydney appointed Col. DesBarres governor of the new colony of Cape Breton Island.
Following the loss of the Thirteen Colonies, Sydney, as Home Secretary in the Pitt Government, was given responsibility for devising a plan to settle convicts at Botany Bay. His choice of Arthur Phillip as Governor was inspired, and Phillip's leadership was instrumental in ensuring the penal colony survived the early years of struggle and famine. On 26 January 1788, Phillip named Sydney Cove in honour of Sydney and the settlement became known as Sydney Town. In 1789 Townshend was created Viscount Sydney.
Although the colonisation of New South Wales was just one among many responsibilities of the Secretary of State, Sydney was recognised as the "Originator of the Plan of Colonization for New South Wales" by David Collins, who dedicated his Account of the English Colony in New South Wales with these words. Collins wrote that Sydney's "benevolent Mind" had led him "to conceive this Method of redeeming many Lives that might be forfeit to the offended Laws; but which, being preserved under salutary Regulations, might afterward become useful to Society"; and to Sydney's "Patriotism the Plan presented a Prospect of commercial and political Advantage". In choosing the name "Sydney" when he was raised to the peerage in 1783, Thomas Townshend demonstrated his pride in descent from the Sidney family, who had been eminent opponents of Stuart absolutism. Sydney thought of himself as a Whig, by which he meant he was opposed to any increase in the power and authority of the Royal prerogative. The name "Sydney" (with special reference to Algernon Sydney, d.1683) was a synonym in the eighteenth century political lexicon for opposition to tyranny and absolutism. It is probable that Sydney was aware of his distinguished ancestor, Algernon Sidney's characterisation of the founders of imperial Rome: “Thus we find a few Men assembling together upon the Banks of the Tiber, resolv’d to build a City, and set up a Government among themselves”.[11] Sydney was responsible for giving the new colony a constitution and judicial system suitable for a colony of free citizens rather than a prison.[12] Phillip's second commission of 2 April 1787 made him governor of a colony with a civil government, not of a penal settlement with a military government. The Governor's commission, together with the colony's charter of justice establishing the legal regime, brought into existence in New South Wales a colony whose inhabitants enjoyed all the rights and duties of English law, where slavery was illegal.[13]
Personal life
Sydney married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Powys, MP, in 1760. He died in June 1800, aged 67, and was succeeded in his titles by his son, John. Sydney was buried in the Scadbury chapel in the parish church of St Nicholas's in Chislehurst in southeast London, where a large memorial tablet to him may be seen. The Viscountess Sydney died in May 1826, aged 90.
Reputation
Sydney's reputation has suffered at the hands of the nationalist school of Australian historians, such as Manning Clark. In his influential A History of Australia (Melbourne University Press 1961) Clark wrote: "Mr Thomas Townshend, commonly denominated Tommy Townshend, owed his political career to a very independent fortune and a considerable parliamentary interest, which contributed to his personal no less than his political elevation, for his abilities, though respectable, scarcely rose above mediocrity." Other writers have portrayed Sydney as a cruel monster for dispatching the unfortunate convicts to the far side of the earth.
Frognal House by George Shepherd appears in Thomas Ireland's History of Kent published c. 1830.
In fact, Sydney was, by the standards of his time, an enlightened and progressive politician. He did not support the American Revolution but was a strong opponent of the war which he thought was pointless and needlessly prolonged during Lord North's ministry. As Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary he was heavily involved in the development of Canada and the settling of fleeing refugees from the intolerant rebels. The city of Sydney in Nova Scotia is named after him in memory of his efforts on behalf of the loyalistsettlers of Canada. In a parallel situation for the Royal Townships of the yet-to-formed colony of Upper Canada the thoroughfares of the United Empire Loyalist settlement of Cornwall, Ontario were, in 1784, named Pitt Street and Sydney Street in honour of the prime minister and his foreign secretary.
More recently Sydney's reputation has been revisited by Australian historians. Alan Atkinson wrote in The Europeans in Australia (Oxford University Press, 1997): "Townshend was an anomaly in the British Cabinet, and his ideas were in some ways old-fashioned... He had long been interested in the way in which the empire might be a medium for British liberties, traditionally understood." He took the view that convicts should be given the chance to redeem themselves through self-government in penal colonies such as New South Wales. Governor Phillip's well-known statement that "There will be no slavery in a new country and hence no slaves" is an accurate reflection of Sydney's philosophy. Sydney's papers are held by the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.
Timeline
1733, 24 February: Born
1754: Entered the House of Commons as MP for Whitchurch, for 29 years until 1783
1756: Clerk of the household of the Prince of Wales
1760, 19 May: married Elizabeth Powys (b.1736 d.1826), later served as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte
1761, 21 March: one of the clerks of the board of green cloth until he resigned in Dec. 1762
↑ The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004: article by Ian K. R. Archer
↑ Brotherton Library (Leeds), Sydney Papers, MS R8, Shelburne to Townshend, c. July 1782. Dalrymple had distingued himself at the Battle of San Fernando de Omoa in 1779.
↑ Alan Frost, Arthur Phillip, Melbourne, OUP, 1987, p.114.
↑ Alan Frost, Arthur Phillip, His Voyaging, Melbourne, OUP, p.114.
↑ Alan Frost, Arthur Phillip, His Voyaging, Melbourne, OUP, 1987, p.114.
↑ Alan Frost, Arthur Phillip, His Voyaging, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1987, p.114.
↑ Alan Frost, Arthur Phillip, His Voyaging, Melbourne, OUP, 1987, pp.129–133.
↑ Tink, Andrew (2011) Lord Sydney: The Life and Times of Tommy Townshend, Australian Scholarly Publishing page 136
↑ Tink, Andrew (2011) Lord Sydney: The Life and Times of Tommy Townshend, Australian Scholarly Publishing pages 135–6
↑ Algernon Sidney, Discourses concerning Government, London, 1704 (reprinted 1783), p.66; quoted in Alan Atkinson, The Europeans in Australia: A History, Melbourne, Oxford U.P., Vol.1, 1997, p.206.
↑ Alan Atkinson, “The first plans for governing New South Wales, 1786–87”, Australian Historical Studies, vol. 24, no. 94, April 1990, pp.22–40.
↑ Sir Victor Windeyer, "A Birthright and Inheritance", Tasmanian University Law Review, vol.1, no.5, 1962.A Birthright and Inheritance
William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, was a British Pittite Tory and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807, though he was a supporter of the British Whig Party for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars.
George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham, was a British statesman.
Viscount Sydney is a title that has been created twice. The title was elevated twice from a barony, and once into an earldom.
Marquess of Lansdowne is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1784, and held by the head of the Petty-FitzMaurice family. The first Marquess served as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Marquess Townshend is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain held by the Townshend family of Raynham Hall in Norfolk. This family descends from Roger Townshend, who in 1617 was created a baronet, of Raynham in the County of Norfolk, in the Baronetage of England. He later represented Orford and Norfolk in the House of Commons. His younger son, the third Baronet, played an important role in the restoration of the monarchy after the Civil War and was also Member of Parliament for Norfolk. In 1661 he was created Baron Townshend, of Lynn Regis in the County of Norfolk, and in 1682 he was further honoured when he was made Viscount Townshend, of Raynham in the County of Norfolk. Both titles were in the Peerage of England.
Field Marshal George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend, PC, known as The Viscount Townshend from 1764 to 1787, was a British soldier and politician. After serving at the Battle of Dettingen during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Battle of Culloden during the Jacobite Rising, Townshend took command of the British forces for the closing stages of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham during the Seven Years' War. He went on to be Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or Viceroy where he introduced measures aimed at increasing the size of Irish regiments, reducing corruption in Ireland and improving the Irish economy. In cooperation with Prime Minister North in London he imposed much greater British control over Ireland. He also served as Master-General of the Ordnance, first in the North Ministry and then in the Fox–North Coalition.
William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, PC (Ire), FRS was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the British House of Commons from 1774 to 1793. The subantarctic Auckland Islands group to the south of New Zealand, discovered in 1806, were named after him.
The article lists the records of Prime Ministers of Great Britain and of the United Kingdom since 1721.
A Lord of the Bedchamber, previously known as a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, was a courtier in the Royal Household; the term was first used in 1718.
John Thomas Townshend, 2nd Viscount Sydney of St Leonards was a British peer and Member of Parliament.
George Townshend, 2nd Marquess Townshend, PC, FRS, known as The Lord Ferrers of Chartley from 1770 to 1784 and as The Earl of Leicester from 1784 to 1807, was a British peer and politician.
Charles Townshend, 1st Baron Bayning PC was a British politician.
Charles Brett was a Royal Navy officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1768 and 1790.
This is a list of the principal holders of government office during the premiership of the Earl of Shelburne between July 1782 and April 1783.
This is a list of the principal holders of government office during the second premiership of the Marquess of Rockingham for four months in 1782.
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 governments administered by the Whigs:
References
Andrew Tink – papers concerning Viscount Sydney, compiled 2005–2006. Mitchell Library manuscripts, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney.
Andrew Tink – Lord Sydney: The Life and Times of Tommy Townshend, published by Australian Scholarly Publishing: 2011: ISBN978-1-921875-43-4
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