Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton

Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (28 September 1735Template:Snd14 March 1811), 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.

He became prime minister in 1768 at the age of 33, leading the supporters of William Pitt, and was the youngest person to hold the office until the appointment of William Pitt the Younger 15 years later. However, he struggled to demonstrate an ability to counter increasing challenges to Britain's global dominance following the nation's victory in the Seven Years' War. He was widely attacked for allowing France to annex Corsica, and stepped down in 1770, handing over power to Lord North.

Background and education

Fitzroy was born on 9 October 1735. He was a son of Lord Augustus FitzRoy, a captain in the Royal Navy, and Elizabeth Cosby, the daughter of Colonel William Cosby, who served as a colonial Governor of New York. Lord Augustus was the third son of the 2nd Duke of Grafton and Lady Henrietta Somerset, which made FitzRoy a great-grandson of both the 1st Duke of Grafton and the Marquess of Worcester. He was notably a fourth-generation descendant of King Charles II and the 1st Duchess of Cleveland; the surname FitzRoy stems from this illegitimacy. His younger brother was the 1st Baron Southampton. Following the death of his uncle in 1747, he was styled Earl of Euston as his grandfather's heir apparent.Template:Sfn

File:Hackney School Reeve.jpg

Euston was educated at Newcome's School (pictured)

As Lord Euston, he went to live at Wakefield. As a boy, he met the prominent Whig statesman William Pitt the Elder at Stowe House, the seat of Lord Cobham and felt a deep sense of admiration for him.Template:Sfn Lord Euston was educated at Newcome's School in Hackney and at Westminster School, made the Grand Tour, and obtained a degree at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Following his education, Lord Euston embarked on the Grand Tour across Europe. He was accompanied by a Swiss tutor, Monsieur Alléon from Geneva, whom Euston described as "a real gentleman, and a man of great honour with much knowledge of the world; but who has fitted to form the polite man than assist, or encourage any progress in literary pursuits."Template:Sfn

During the tour, he stayed at the house of Lord Albemarle, the British Ambassador to France, where Euston was able indulge in the house's library and widely read history.Template:Sfn In 1754, he returned to England.Template:Sfn

Political career

In 1756, he entered Parliament as MP for Boroughbridge, a pocket borough; several months later, he switched constituencies to Bury St Edmunds, which was controlled by his family. However, a year later, his grandfather died, and he succeeded as the 3rd Duke of Grafton, which elevated him to the House of Lords.Template:Sfn During his entrance to Parliament, he ran unopposed in two by-elections, one was a pocket borough controlled by the then-Prime Minister Duke of Newcastle.Template:Sfn

Grafton was immediately created the Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk and served in that capacity from 1757 to 1763, when he was dismissed by Lord Bute. He would again serve in that position from 1769 to 1790. In November 1756, he was appointed lord of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales but he resigned from the post in June 1758.Template:Sfn However, Euston remained as an MP for less than five months when, on 6 May 1757, following the passing of his grandfather, Euston became the third Duke of Grafton. The late duke was a great favourite of King George II and similarly his grandson too followed him in cordial relations with the King. Following his elevation to the dukedom, he became a member of the House of Lords.Template:SfnGrafton, at first, rarely involved himself with mainstream politics or in the Lords for the following few years but proved to be a strong supporter of the government led by the Duke of Newcastle and Pitt the Elder. He spent much of his time at his country estates at Euston Hall and Wakefield Lodge.Template:Sfn

In 1762, he again became involved in politics as a leader of a group of "young friends" whom supported the former prime minister, the Duke of Newcastle. He first became known in politics as an opponent of Lord Bute, a favourite of King George III. Grafton aligned himself with the Duke of Newcastle against Lord Bute, whose term as prime minister was short-lived largely because it was felt that the peace terms to which he had agreed at the Treaty of Paris were not a sufficient return for Britain's performance in the Seven Years' War. He gave a speech in the Lords against the Bute government's new peace proposals and was regarded as an effective debater amongst his peers. He was earmarked for a position in government if either Newcastle or Pitt were to return back to power. In December 1762, he was removed from his position as lord-lieutenant of Suffolk following a purge by Bute and his ally, Henry Fox.Template:Sfn

In 1763, Bute resigned and was replaced by George Grenville. While Grafton was in opposition, he visited the radical John Wilkes in the Tower of London. The King initially sent for his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, to form a government. Though reluctant, he eventually avoided the task by persuading the Marquess of Rockingham to lead the ministry. Rockingham appointed many of his friends in the Whig party to the new government.Template:Sfn In 1765, Grafton was appointed a Privy Counsellor; then, following discussions with William Pitt the Elder, he was appointed Northern Secretary in Lord Rockingham's first government. The cabinet was full of inexperienced members, including Grafton, without prior ministerial record. Grafton's role in the ministry was primarily as the Leader of the House of Lords.Template:Sfn However, Rockingham retired the following year, and Pitt (by then Lord Chatham) formed a ministry in which Grafton was First Lord of the Treasury but not the prime minister.

The ministry that assumed office was composed of a diverse coalition, including supporters of the King, followers of Chatham, and members of the official Whig faction. Initially, it maintained a fragile unity but was widely regarded as a temporary arrangement. Shortly after its formation, Chatham fell ill and withdrew to Bath, ceasing to participate in government affairs or communicate with his colleagues. By March 1767, the direction of government had passed to Grafton, marking the end of Chatham's administration.Template:Sfn

On 20 September 1769, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Garter.

Prime minister

File:Augustus-Henry-FitzRoy-3rd-Duke-of-Grafton.png

Portrait of the Duke of Grafton by Pompeo Batoni, 1762. Grafton is shown in the uniform of the Suffolk Militia.

Chatham's illness, at the end of 1767, resulted in Grafton becoming the government's effective leader (he is credited with entering the office of prime minister in 1768), but political differences, the impact of the Corsican Crisis and the attacks of "Junius" led to his resignation in January 1770. Also, in 1768, Grafton became Chancellor of Cambridge University. He became Lord Privy Seal in Lord North's ministry (1771) but resigned in 1775, being in favour of conciliatory action towards the American colonists. In the second Rockingham ministry of 1782, he was again Lord Privy Seal and continued in the post in the following Shelburne ministry until March 1783.

Appointment and cabinet

Grafton succeeded Chatham as prime minister effectively when the latter formally relinquished his involvement in the government on 14 October. For eighteen months, Grafton deputised for the gravely ill Chatham and he effectively took control of the entire ministry on 13 October, a day after Chatham submitted a letter of resignation to the King.Template:Sfn Grafton's cabinet remained unchanged and the only new appointments to the ministry were that of the Earl of Bristol as Lord Privy Seal and Frederick North as Chancellor of the Exchequer, who became second-in-charge.Template:Sfn However, Grafton proved far less to be dominant figure within his own government with no clear lead on issues that divided the cabinet. According to Dick Leonard, Grafton was considered "liberal" than most cabinet members as he did little to tighten his authority with him being out-voted numerous in cabinet meetings and did little to reverse decisions taken by individual ministers.Template:Sfn

Corsican crisis

Ever since the Treaty of Paris, Anglo-French relations remained strained. The French sought retaliation for their defeat and humiliation in the Seven Years' War. Although Britain emerged victorious in the war, it became financially indebted and weakened by a string of failed foreign policy ventures by previous administrations with it having no real ally on the continent. In the 1750s, the Genoese owned island of Corsica rebelled and overthrew its overlords. The Corsican leader, Pasquale Paoli, established the Corsican Republic with a liberal constitution similar to that of Great Britain. However, following their defeat, the Genoese sold Corsica to the France in a secret treaty and paved the way ft or its eventual invasion by the French.Template:Sfn

The French invaded Corsica in 1768 and attempted to establish its dominance over the entire island. The Corsicans, led by Paoli, rose up to defend their island from the invaders. Following the invasion, there were urgent calls for support from the British government and the British public opinion was heavily for the Corsican cause. Grafton and his Southern Secretary, Lord Earl of Shelburne, opposed the invasion but saw no point in intervening at the final moment. Many ministers in the government were young and inexperienced. However, the government was rightly more concerned with the deteriorating situation in the Thirteen Colonies.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

The failure to assist the Corsicans drew criticism from both Parliament and the public and largely fell upon the shoulders of Grafton as head of the government. However, according to historian P. D. G. Thomas, the event strengthened the government rather than weaken it, following Lord Rochford's assessment that foreign policy should not be ground for opposition attacks. Still, the Corsican fiasco deeply divided and hurt confidence in Grafton's ministry. In Parliament, Grenvillite Henry Seymour attacked by questioning whether the government had any policy despite rigorous attempts by Lord North to defend it.Template:Sfn

Discontent in the American colonies

One of the major problems that plagued the Grafton government was the uproar in the Thirteen Colonies over taxation. Grafton, however, wanted a reconciliatory approach toward the colonies and opposed the taxation measures such as tax on tea and others proposed by Charles Townshend, as Chancellor, in 1767.Template:Sfn The American opposition to the tax measures was based on non-representation in Parliament and despite successive governments repealing many of those measures, it did not satisfy the colonists.Template:Sfn In November, Grafton formulated a new plan for the Americas which was palatable to both the cabinet and Parliament: a series of parliamentary resolutions would condemn a call for an uprising in Boston, Massachusetts followed by an address by the King to the Governor of Massachusetts to submit the names of those responsible and charged with treason under a old statute from the reign of Henry VIII. Colonial Secretary Lord Hillsborough favoured an alteration of the plan to forfeit the letter that called for it but was overruled by the whole cabinet and he, therefore, he did not introduce the plan in the Lords due to deeming it useless. The government decided not to repeal the Townshend Acts until the colonists fully submit.Template:Sfn Fearing that the British government's response to the discontent in the Americas were too "soft", Lord Hillsborough proposed a list of measures which were coercive in nature: the appointment of the Massachusetts Council by The Crown, the non-compliance of several colonies to the Mutiny Act 1765 be countered with troops quartered in private homes. However these measures proved to be futile and inconclusive.Template:Sfn

Militia career

File:A Perspective View of Coxheath Camp representing a Grand Review of the Army.png

Coxheath Camp in 1778

Grafton was a strong supporter of moves to reform the militia during the Seven Years' War, and as Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk his county was one of the first to raise its quota, in two regiments on 27 April 1759. He soon took personal command of the West Suffolk Militia as its Colonel. The militia remained on active service until 1762. The militia was called out again after the outbreak of the War of American Independence when Britain was threatened with invasion by the Americans' allies, France and Spain. On 26 March 1778, Grafton was ordered to embody the two regiments once more. In that summer, the West Suffolks under Grafton formed part of a concentration at Coxheath Camp, near Maidstone in Kent, which was the army's largest training camp. The duke was chosen to train the grenadier companies of all the battalions in camp, and he worked them hard, 7–8 hours a day. Observers of the camp noted that the discipline of the West Suffolk Militia under Grafton was especially good. He resigned his commission on grounds of ill-health in February 1780, and his 20-year-old son and heir, George, Earl of Euston, succeeded him as colonel of the West Suffolk Militia.

Religious interests

In later years Grafton was a prominent Unitarian, being one of the early members of the inaugural Essex Street Chapel under Rev. Theophilus Lindsey when it was founded in 1774. Grafton had associated with a number of liberal Anglican theologians when at Cambridge, and devoted much time to theological study and writing after leaving office as prime minister. In 1773, in the House of Lords, he supported a bill to release Anglican clergy from subscribing to all the Thirty-nine Articles. He became a supporter of moral reform among the wealthy and of changes to the church. He was the author of:

• Hints Submitted to the Serious Attention of the Clergy, Nobility and Gentry, by a Layman (1789).
• Serious Reflections of a Rational Christian from 1788–1797.

He was a sponsor of Richard Watson's Consideration of the Expediency of Revising the Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England (published in 1790), and he funded the printing of 700 copies of Griesbach's edition of the Greek New Testament in 1796.Template:Sfn

Horseracing

The Duke also had horse racing interests. His racing colours were sky blue, with a black cap.

Legacy

Grafton County, New Hampshire, in the United States, is named in his honour, as is the city of Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, the town of Grafton, New York, the unincorporated community of Grafton, Virginia, and possibly the township (since 1856 a city) of Grafton, West Virginia. The Grafton Centre Shopping Mall in Cambridge is also named after him and indeed lies on Fitzroy Street. Cape Grafton in Far North Queensland was named after him by Lieutenant James Cook during his first voyage of discovery.

Grafton had the longest post-premiership of any prime minister in British history, [[List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by age|totalling Template:Age in years and days]].

Family

On 29 January 1756, he married The Hon. Anne Liddell, daughter of Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth (1708–1784), at Lord Ravensworth's house in St James's Square, by licence. The marriage was witnessed by Lord Ravensworth and Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Earl of Hertford.

Augustus and Anne had three children:

• Lady Georgiana FitzRoy (8 May 1757Template:Snd18 January 1799), who married John Smyth (12 February 1748Template:Snd12 February 1811) on 4 June 1778.
• George Henry FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton (1760–1844)
• General Lord Charles FitzRoy (14 July 1764Template:Snd20 December 1829), who married, firstly, Frances Mundy (1773Template:Snd9 August 1797) on 20 June 1795, and had one son. He married, secondly, Lady Frances Stewart (24 June 1777Template:Snd9 February 1810) on 10 March 1799 and had three children. His sons Sir Charles FitzRoy (1796–1858), governor of New South Wales, and Robert FitzRoy, the hydrographer, were notable for their achievements.Template:Sfn

In 1764, the Duke had a very public affair with the courtesan Nancy Parsons whom he kept at his townhouse and took to the opera, where they allegedly were found in flagrante delicto. This brazen lack of convention offended society's standards. After the Duchess had become pregnant by her own lover, the Earl of Upper Ossory, she and the Duke were divorced by Act of Parliament, passed 23 March 1769.Template:Sfn Three months later, on 24 June 1769, the Duke married Elizabeth Wrottesley (1 November 1745Template:Snd25 May 1822), daughter of the Reverend Sir Richard Wrottesley, Dean of Worcester. They had the following children:

• Lord Henry FitzRoy (9 April 1770Template:Snd7 June 1828), clergyman; he married Caroline Pigot (died 1 January 1835) on 10 September 1800 and had five children. Ancestor of Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick.
• Lord Frederick FitzRoy (born 16 September 1774; died young).
• Lady Augusta FitzRoy (1779Template:Snd29 June 1839), who married Rev. George F. Tavel (died 1829) on 19 November 1811.
• Lady Frances FitzRoy (1 June 1780Template:Snd7 January 1866), who married the 1st Baron Churchill on 25 November 1800.
• Admiral Lord William FitzRoy (1 June 1782Template:Snd13 May 1857), who married Georgiana Raikes (died 2 December 1861) in 1816 and had two children.
• Lord John Edward FitzRoy (24 September 1785Template:Snd28 December 1856), MP, died unmarried.
• Lady Charlotte FitzRoy (died 23 June 1857).
• Lady Elizabeth FitzRoy (died 13 March 1839), who married her cousin Lt. Gen. The Hon. William FitzRoy (1773–1837), son of the 1st Baron Southampton, on 4 July 1811.
• Lady Isabella FitzRoy (died 10 December 1866), who married Barrington Pope Blachford (3 December 1783Template:Snd14 May 1816) on 11 August 1812.

Grafton is thus the first British prime minister before Anthony Eden (and one of only three) to have been divorced, and the second, after Robert Walpole, to marry while in office. Grafton would be the only prime minister to divorce and remarry while in office until Boris Johnson in 2021. FitzRoy died on 14 March 1811.

Cabinet of the Duke of Grafton

Template:Transcluded section {{#section::Grafton ministry|October 1768 to January 1770}}

Bibliography

• Lt-Col E.A.H. Webb, History of the 12th (The Suffolk) Regiment 1685–1913, London: Spottiswoode, 1914/Uckfield: Naval & Military, 2001, ISBN 978-1-84342-116-0.
• J.R. Western, The English Militia in the Eighteenth Century: The Story of a Political Issue 1660–1802, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1965.
• Template:Cite thesis

External links

• The Third Duke of Grafton
• More about Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grafton on the 10 Downing Street website.
• Template:Hansard-contribs