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.
Townshend was born in Frognal House, Sidcup, Kent, the son of the Hon. Thomas Townshend, who was the second son of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, also known as "Turnip" Townshend for his agricultural innovations. Thomas Townshend the younger's mother was Albinia, daughter of John Selwyn. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge. [1]
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Townshend was elected to the House of Commons in 1754 as Whig member for Whitchurch in Hampshire, and held that seat till his elevation to the peerage in 1783. He initially aligned himself with his great-uncle the Duke of Newcastle, but later joined William Pitt the Elder in opposition to George Grenville.
He held the offices of Clerk of the Household to the Prince of Wales (1756–1760) 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]
Townshend remained in opposition until the end of Lord North's ministry and spoke frequently in the House of Commons against the American Revolutionary 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.
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 HMS Europa, 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]
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]
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.[ citation needed ]
Their daughter, Mary (died 1821), [14] married John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, but had no children.
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.
Sydney can be described, by the standards of his time, as an enlightened and progressive politician.[ citation needed ] 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 loyalist settlers of Canada. In a parallel situation for the Royal Townships of the yet-to-be-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.
In 1986, preceding celebrations of the Australian Bicentenary, Sydney was honoured on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post depicting his portrait. [15] In 1992, a monument in bronze and marble commemorating both the First Fleet and Viscount Sydney was unveiled in Sydney Square, outside Sydney Town Hall by Queen Elizabeth II. [16]
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.
Arthur Phillip was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales.
William Pitt was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom from January 1801. He left office in March 1801, but served as prime minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806. He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer for all of his time as prime minister. He is known as "Pitt the Younger" to distinguish him from his father, William Pitt the Elder, who had also previously served as prime minister.
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 Revolutionary War. 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 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 an ancestor of King Charles III through his great-granddaughter Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history, was an Anglo-Irish 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.
George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham,, known as George Grenville before 1779 and as The Earl Temple between 1779 and 1784, was a British statesman.
Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, was an English Whig statesman. He served for a decade as Secretary of State for the Northern Department from 1714 to 1717 and again from 1721 to 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.
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. The title was created in 1787 for George Townshend, 4th Viscount Townshend.
General John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, was a British soldier and politician. He spent a lengthy period in the cabinet but is best known for commanding the disastrous Walcheren Campaign of 1809.
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 solidified governmental 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 House of Commons from 1774 to 1793.
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.
Events from the year 1782 in Great Britain. The American Revolutionary War draws to a close.
Gentleman of the Bedchamber was a title in the Royal Household of the Kingdom of England from the 11th century, later used also in the Kingdom of Great Britain. A Lord of the Bedchamber was a courtier in the Royal Household, the term being first used in 1718. The duties of the Lords and Gentlemen of the Bedchamber originally consisted of assisting the monarch with dressing, waiting on him when he ate, guarding access to his bedchamber and closet, and providing companionship. Such functions became less important over time, but provided proximity to the monarch; the holders were thus trusted confidants and often extremely powerful. The offices were in the gift of The Crown and were originally sworn by Royal Warrant directed to the Lord Chamberlain.
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 British governments administered by the Whigs:
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