Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley

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George IV
Prime MinisterThe Earl of Liverpool
George Canning
Viscount Goderich
Preceded byCharles Bathurst
Succeeded byThe Earl of Aberdeen
Personal details
Born(1766-04-29)29 April 1766
Tory
Spouse(s)Catherine Isabella Eden
(1778–1810)
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford

Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley,

FSA (29 April 1766 – 8 February 1851) was an English politician, and one of the longest-serving Chancellors of the Exchequer
in British history.

Background and education

The fifth son of

From the early 1770s he was living with his mother at 60 Crooms Hill, Greenwich.

Political career

Henry Addington's ministry in April 1804. Owing to the influence of his friend, the Duke of Cumberland, he became Chief Secretary for Ireland under Pitt in January 1805, resigning his office in the following September. With Addington, now Viscount Sidmouth, he joined the government of Charles James Fox and Lord Grenville as Secretary to the Treasury in February 1806, leaving office with Sidmouth just before the fall of the ministry in March 1807.[1]

During these and the next few years Vansittart's reputation as a financier was gradually rising. In 1809 he proposed and carried without opposition in the

House of Commons thirty-eight resolutions on financial questions, and only his loyalty to Sidmouth prevented him from joining the cabinet of Spencer Perceval as Chancellor of the Exchequer in October 1809. He opposed an early resumption of cash payments in 1811, and became Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Earl of Liverpool succeeded Perceval in May 1812. Having forsaken Old Sarum, he had represented Helston from November 1806 to June 1812; and after being member for East Grinstead for a few weeks, was returned for Harwich in October 1812.[1]

Chancellor of the Exchequer

When Vansittart became

national debt. He carried an elaborate scheme for handing over the payment of naval and military pensions to contractors, who would be paid a fixed annual sum for forty-five years; but no one was found willing to undertake this contract, although a modified plan on the same lines was afterwards adopted.[1]

Vansittart became very unpopular in the country, and he resigned his office in December 1822. His system of finance was severely criticised by

Catholic Emancipation
in 1824. He took a good deal of interest in the
Church Missionary Society and kindred bodies, funded Kenyon college and seminary on the US western frontier (the seminary is now named Bexley Hall in his honour) and assisted in founding King's College London.[3]
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822.[4] He was also one of the vice-presidents of the American Colonization Society, whose aim was to repatriate African freedmen in the United States to the African continent.[5]

Family

Lord Bexley married Catherine Isabella (1778–1810), daughter of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, in July 1806. He withdrew from public life in the spring of 1809 to take her on rest cures at Malvern and Torquay.[6] The marriage was childless. He died at Foots Cray, Kent, on 8 February 1851. As he had no issue the title became extinct on his death.

Coat of arms of Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley
Crest
An eagle's head, couped at the neck, between two wings elevated and displayed sable, the whole resting on two crosses patée argent.
Escutcheon
Ermine, an eagle displayed sable, on a chief gules a ducal coronet or between two crosses patée argent.
Supporters
Dexter, a horse regardant argent, gorged with a ducal coronet or; and pendent therefrom by a gold chain, a shield sable, charged with an ostrich feather argent, quilled and escrolled, gold (allusive to the badge or cognizance of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster). Sinister, an eagle regardant, wings elevated and displayed sable, gorged with a ducal coronet, and pendent therefrom a portcullis or.
Motto
GRATA QUIES (Grateful Repose) [7]

Legacy

The Australian explorer Phillip Parker King named one of the bays on the coast of Kimberley in Western Australia "Vansittart Bay" after Lord Bexley.[8]

Archives

There are nine volumes of Vansittart's papers in the British Library.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911.
  2. ^ "No. 17896". The London Gazette. 15 February 1823. p. 251.
  3. ^ Bexley and Coburn Halls Archived 1 September 2006 at the Wayback Machine at Kenyon College website. Retrieved on 8 September 2006.
  4. ^ "Library and Archive catalog". Royal Society. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  5. ^ The African Repository, American Colonization Society, 1842, Volumes 18–19, p. 54 [1]
  6. ^ Vansittart, Nicholas, first Baron Bexley (1766–1851), politician, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
  7. ^ Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 1840.
  8. ^ "Vansittart Bay". Great Escape Cruises. Retrieved 7 May 2022. Vansittart Bay was named after the Chancellor of Exchequer by early explorer Phillip Parker King
Attribution

External links

Political offices
Preceded by Secretary to the Treasury
(junior)

1801–1802
Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary to the Treasury
(senior)

1802–1804
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief Secretary for Ireland
1805
Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary to the Treasury
(senior)

1806–1807
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chancellor of the Exchequer
1812–1823
Succeeded by
Preceded by Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1823–1828
Succeeded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
John Stanley
Robert Dundas
Member of Parliament for
William Sturges
1798–1801
Succeeded by
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Parliament of Great Britain
Member of Parliament for
William Sturges
1801–1802
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for
Josias du Pre Porcher
from 1807
Succeeded by
Josias du Pre Porcher
James Alexander
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Helston
1806–1807
With: John Du Ponthieu
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for East Grinstead
1812
With: Charles Ellis
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Harwich
1812–1823
With: John Hiley Addington 1812–1818
Charles Bathurst 1818–1823
Succeeded by
J. C. Herries