George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville

George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville,

His ministry received much of the blame for

He then entered the army. Sackville was elected Grandmaster of the Grand Lodge of Ireland in 1751 and served for two years.^[5]

Family

He married Diana Sambrooke, daughter of John Sambrook and Elizabeth Forester, on 3 September 1754. They had two sons and two daughters, including:

• Diana Sackville (8 July 1756 – 29 August 1814), married John Crosbie, 2nd Earl of Glandore
• Charles Sackville (27 August 1767 – 29 July 1843), later changed his name to Charles Sackville-Germain.
• George Sackville (7 December 1770 – 31 May 1836)
• Elizabeth, married Henry Herbert, MP

Early military career

Sackville started as a captain in the 7th Horse (later the

He saw his first battle, leading the charge of the

In June 1758 Sackville was second in command of a British expedition, led by Marlborough, which attempted an amphibious Raid on St Malo. While it failed to take the town as instructed, the raid was still considered to have been largely successful as a diversion. Follow-up raids were considered against Le Havre, Caen and other targets in Normandy, but no further landings were attempted, and the force returned home.

Later in 1758 they joined the allied forces of

Battle of Minden

In the

Court martial

Sackville refused to accept responsibility for refusing to obey orders. Back in England, he demanded a

Sackville had been a Member of Parliament at intervals since 1733. He had served terms in both the Dublin and the Westminster bodies, sometimes simultaneously, but had not taken sides in political wrangles.

Between 1750 and 1755 he served as Chief Secretary for Ireland, during his father's second term as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

When

Initially he was a follower of George Grenville's faction, but he increasingly lined up as a supporter of Lord North and, in 1769, he made the alliance formal. Then, in 1769, Lady Elizabeth Germain died without natural heirs, and left her estates, including Drayton, Northamptonshire, to him. That not only improved his finances but also gave him the chance to take that name formally. After 1770, he was known as Lord George Germain.

Secretary of State

Appointment

On 10 November 1775, Germain was appointed

Sackville and Lord North made three assumptions^[citation needed] about the war they were about to face: firstly, the American forces could not withstand the assaults of the British; secondly, the war would be similar to wars they had fought successfully in Europe; and lastly, their victory would bring about their goal of having the colonies' allegiance. All of their assumptions proved to be false ^{[citation needed]} with the limited and unhelpful exception of the first in that the American forces usually could not withstand the assaults of the British in open battle but instead adopted other more successful tactics.^{[further explanation needed]}

In 1776, he worked with General John Burgoyne to plan, support and issue orders for the Saratoga campaign. However, his unclear orders to General William Howe contributed to the campaign's failure. Following the entry of France, Spain and the Dutch Republic into the conflict, British emphasis shifted to focus increasingly on a global war. British troops were withdrawn from Philadelphia and reinforcements were sent to the valuable sugar-producing West Indies. In 1779 one of Germain's associates, Richard Cumberland, was sent to Madrid for failed talks designed to reach a separate peace settlement with Spain.

Yorktown

In 1781, the confusion involving orders sent to

The news of Yorktown reached London on 25 November 1781, and the messenger went first to Germain's residence at Pall Mall.^[13] Germain then went to tell other ministers. Together they went to Lord North, who reportedly cried out "Oh God – It's all over". It was agreed that Germain, rather than North, should take the news to the King who was at Kew.^[14] The King's Speech two days later had to be re-written in light of Yorktown. News of the surrender galvanised the opposition, and the government majorities began to shrink over the following months with calls for resignations of senior ministers. Germain drew up a plan to continue the war by using the existing British bases in Charleston, New York, Savannah and Canada to harass the American coastline and frontiers.^[15] He also advocated re-occupying Newport in Rhode Island to give a foothold in New England.

Departure from office

Germain became a target for the opposition and was eventually persuaded to step down in exchange for a peerage, and in February 1782, he was made Baron Bolebrooke, in the County of Sussex, and Viscount Sackville, of Drayton in the County of Northampton.

The controversy over Lord Sackville's handling of the war continued. Some members were opposed to his taking a seat in the House of Lords, an almost unprecedented incident. However, he was admitted to the Lords, where he was staunchly defended by Lord Thurlow, and his declining health soon made the issue irrelevant. He retired to his country home at Stoneland Lodge and died there in 1785. He maintained to his dying day that he had not been a coward at Minden. Following his death, a defence of Sackville's reputation, The character of the late Viscount Sackville, was written by Richard Cumberland. A trove of the subject's letters were published by the Historical Records Commission beginning in 1904 under the title Report on the manuscripts of Mrs. Stopford-Sackville, of Drayton House, Northhamptonshire / with a new introduction and preface by George Athan Billias.^[18]

The Drayton House estate passed to his son Charles, who later became the 5th (and last) Duke of Dorset. The Stoneland estate (or Buckhurst Park as it came to be known) passed via the wife of the late 3rd Duke of Dorset to her daughter Countess de la Warr on the Dowager Duchess's death in 1825.

Legacy

• Namesake of Fort Sackville (Nova Scotia), Canada
• Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia and Upper Sackville, Nova Scotia
• Germain Street, Saint John, New Brunswick
• Sackville, New South Wales
• Town of Sackville, New Brunswick. Established in 1762 by settlers ("New England planters") from Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts, the Sackville Township, named for Viscount Sackville, was formally created in 1765; by 1772 it was sufficiently populated to send a representative to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. It became part of the Province of New Brunswick in 1784. The Town was incorporated in 1903.

References