George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax
The Earl of Bristol | |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Suffolk |
| Lord Lieutenant of Ireland | |
| In office 3 April 1761 – 27 April 1763 | |
| Monarch | George III |
| Prime Minister | Duke of Newcastle Earl of Bute |
| Preceded by | The Duke of Bedford |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Northumberland |
| President of the Board of Trade | |
| In office 1 November 1748 – 21 March 1761 | |
| Monarch | George II |
| Prime Minister | Henry Pelham Duke of Newcastle Duke of Devonshire Duke of Newcastle |
| Preceded by | The Lord Monson |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Sandys |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 October 1716 |
| Died | 8 June 1771 (aged 54) |
| Nationality | Tory |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax,
Early life
The son of the 1st Earl of Halifax, he was styled Viscount Sunbury until succeeding his father as Earl of Halifax in 1739 (thus also styled in common usage Lord Halifax). Educated at Eton College and at Trinity College, Cambridge,[3] he was married in 1741 to Anne Richards (died 1753), who had inherited a great fortune from Sir Thomas Dunk, whose name Halifax took.[4]
Career
After having been an official in the household of Frederick, Prince of Wales, Halifax was made Master of the Buckhounds, and in 1748 he became President of the Board of Trade. While filling this position he helped to found Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, which was named after him, and he helped foster trade, especially with North America.[4]
About this time he attempted, unsuccessfully, to become a Secretary of State, but was only allowed to enter the Cabinet in 1757. In March 1761, Halifax was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and during part of the time which he held this office he was also First Lord of the Admiralty.[4]
He became
In 1763, he signed the general warrant for the "authors, printers and publishers" of The North Briton number 45, under which John Wilkes and 48 others were arrested, and for which, six years later, the courts of law made Halifax pay damages. He was also mainly responsible for the exclusion of the name of the King's mother,
Together with his colleagues, Halifax left office in July 1765, returning to the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal under his nephew, Lord North, in January 1770. He had just been restored to his former position of Secretary of State when he died.[4]
Cricket
Like his friends
Legacy
Social, moral and cultural impact
Halifax, who was Lord-Lieutenant of
He was a political patron of playwright and civil servant
Politics
Halifax was opposed to slavery, and refused to invest his money in any cause that was linked to the TransAtlantic slave trade. There were numerous occasions in which colonists in North America came into conflict with Parliament, and on every one of those occasions he publicly voiced support for the colonists, thus leading to him becoming a popular figure in Britain's North American colonies, including the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the Province of North Carolina and the Colony of Virginia. Halifax supported expanding the franchise so that a larger portion of people in the Kingdom of Great Britain would be able to vote in parliamentary elections.[9] His mistress had kept a low profile while he was in Ireland, but she was alleged to have sold positions which was a political scandal for part of Halifax's career.[7]
Memorials
Halifax was buried in the parish church of Horton, Northamptonshire; an effigy bust and plaque features in the north transept of Westminster Abbey. An obelisk is erected at Chicksands Wood in the parish of Haynes, Bedfordshire, inscribed to his memory.
Collections
University College London holds over 4000 tracts in its Lansdowne and Halifax tracts collections, the latter being named after Halifax.[10] The tracts were published in England between 1559 and 1776, and relate to the union between England and Scotland, the Civil War and the Restoration. Many of the tracts were written by Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift under pseudonyms.[10]
Related locations
-
Obelisk to Halifax, Chicksands Wood -
Inscription on obelisk to Halifax -
Hampton Court House was built by Halifax c. 1761–1765, his mistress's house while he lived intermittently at Upper Lodge (i.e. Bushy House) both then in Bushy Park which adjoins. -
Demolished Horton Hall (i.e. Manor House) was improved by Halifax – his ancestral Northamptonshire home.
Footnotes
- ^ "George Montagu Dunk, Second Earl of Halifax". Au cœur de l'Acadie: Archives concernant la Déportation et le Grand dérangement, 1714-1768. Nova Scotia Archives. Archived from the original on 4 December 2006. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
- ^ Halifax to the Lords of Trade, september 19,1763. In: Shortt, Adam and Doughty, Arthur-G, Documents relating to the constitutional history of Canada (Sessional Papers no. 18), Ottawa, Dawson, King's Printer, 1907, p. 112.
- ^ "Sunbury, George (Lord) (SNBY733G)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Maun, pp. 106–107.
- ^ Waghorn, Cricket Scores, p. 27.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Joseph Grego (1886). A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering in the Old Days . Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
- ^ a b "Lord Lucan and others at Hampton Court House" Archived 24 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Watford Observer English History article.
- ^ a b UCL Special Collections (23 August 2018). "Lansdowne and Halifax Tracts". UCL Special Collections. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
Attribution:
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Halifax, George Montagu Dunk, 2nd Earl of". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 839.
Bibliography
- Maun, Ian (2009). From Commons to Lord's, Volume One: 1700 to 1750. Roger Heavens. ISBN 978-1-900592-52-9.
- Waghorn, H. T. (1899). Cricket Scores, Notes, etc. (1730–1773). Blackwood.
Further reading
- Andrew D. M. Beaumont, Colonial America and the Earl of Halifax, 1748-1761. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2015.
External links
- Lansdowne and Halifax Tracts at University College London
Media related to George Montagu-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax at Wikimedia Commons
.jpg)
