William Gerard Hamilton

The Right Honourable
William Gerard Hamilton
PC (Ire)
The Right Honourable William Gerard Hamilton PC (Ire)
Member of Parliament
	In office; 1754–1796
Constituency	Haslemere (1790–1796); Wilton (1780–1790); Wareham (1774–1780); Old Sarum (1768–1774); Pontefract (1761–1768); Petersfield (1754–1761)
Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland
	In office; 1763–1784
Preceded by	Lord Yorke
Succeeded by	John Foster
Chief Secretary for Ireland
	In office; 1761–1764
Member of Parliament for Killybegs
	In office; 1761–1768
Personal details
Born	28 January 1729; London, Great Britain
Died	16 July 1796 (aged 67); London, Great Britain
Resting place	St Martin-in-the-Fields, City of Westminster, London
Education	Winchester College
Alma mater	Oriel College, Oxford

William Gerard Hamilton (28 January 1729 – 16 July 1796), was an English statesman and Irish politician, popularly known as "Single Speech Hamilton".

Biography

He was born in

House of Commons. But the nickname "Single Speech" is undoubtedly misleading, and Hamilton is known to have spoken with success on other occasions, both in the House of Commons and in the Irish parliament.^[1]

Political offices

In 1756 he was appointed one of the commissioners for trade and plantations, and in 1761 he became chief secretary to

MP of the Irish House of Commons for Killybegs (until 1768) and English MP for Pontefract.^[1]

He was appointed

Prince Regent, serving as a trusted adviser.^[2] In 1784 he exchanged his office as Chancellor of the Exchequer for a pension of £2,000 p.a.^[2] Hamilton had held the office for over 20 years, although had treated the role as a largely ceremonial position. He was succeeded by John Foster, who went on to bring in changes credited with greatly boosting the rural Irish economy.^[3]

Ill health and death

He suffered from a severe paralytic stroke in the winter of 1791–92. This had not been his first, and by August 1792 he remained in a poor state. On 4 March 1793 he received a leave of absence from the House of Commons due to his ill health. He died in

St Martins-in-the-Fields. His death came "just in time to save him from absolute poverty."^[2]

He was unmarried.

Two of his speeches in the Irish House of Commons, and some other miscellaneous works—including previously unpublished notes on the Corn Laws by Johnson—were published by Edmond Malone after his death under the title Parliamentary Logick.^[4]

References

Notes

Sources

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hamilton, William Gerard". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 890.
Martin, Peter (2005). Edmond Malone, Shakespearean Scholar: A Literary Biography. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-61982-3
.

External links

William Gerard Hamilton at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)

Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by Henry Gore Francis Pierpoint Burton	Member of Parliament for Killybegs 1761–1768 With: Richard Jones	Succeeded by Henry Hamilton Thomas Allan
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by William Conolly	Member of Parliament for Petersfield 1754–1761 With: John Jolliffe 1754 William Beckford 1754 Sir John Philipps 1754–1761	Succeeded by John Jolliffe Richard Pennant
Preceded by Sambrooke Freeman The Viscount Galway	Member of Parliament for Pontefract 1761–1768 With: The Viscount Galway	Succeeded by The Viscount Galway Sir Rowland Winn
Preceded by Howell Gwynne Thomas Pitt	Member of Parliament for Old Sarum 1768–1774 With: John Craufurd	Succeeded by Pinckney Wilkinson Thomas Pitt
Preceded by Robert Palk Thomas de Grey	Member of Parliament for Wareham 1774–1780 With: Christopher D'Oyly	Succeeded by John Boyd Thomas Farrer
Preceded by Charles Herbert	Member of Parliament for Wilton 1780–1790 With: Lord Herbert 1780–1785, 1788–1790 Philip Goldsworthy 1785–1788	Succeeded by Lord Herbert The Viscount FitzWilliam
Preceded by John Baynes-Garforth John Lowther	Member of Parliament for Haslemere 1790–1796 With: James Lowther 1790 Richard Penn 1790–1791 James Clarke Satterthwaite 1791–1796	Succeeded by James Clarke Satterthwaite James Lowther
Political offices
Preceded by Richard Rigby	Chief Secretary for Ireland 1761–1764	Succeeded by The Earl of Drogheda
Preceded by Sir William Yorke	Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland 1763–1784	Succeeded by John Foster

[FOOTNOTEChisholm1911-1] Chisholm 1911.

[HoP-2] HAMILTON, William Gerard (1729-96), of Hampton Court, Mdx., The History of Parliament

[3] Ireland: A History from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day p.75

[FOOTNOTEMartin20057-4] Martin 2005, p. 7.

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