William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

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Prime Minister of Great Britain
In office 4 July 1782 – 26 March 1783
Monarch	George III
Preceded by	The Marquess of Rockingham
Succeeded by	The Duke of Portland
Leader of the House of Lords
In office 4 July 1782 – 2 April 1783
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	The Marquess of Rockingham
Succeeded by	The Duke of Portland
Home Secretary
In office 27 March 1782 – 10 July 1782
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Rockingham Himself
Preceded by	The Earl of Hillsborough (Southern Secretary)
Succeeded by	Thomas Townshend
Secretary of State for the Southern Department
In office 30 July 1766 – 20 October 1768
Prime Minister	The Earl of Chatham The Duke of Grafton
Preceded by	The Duke of Richmond
Succeeded by	The Viscount Weymouth
Personal details
Born	(1737-05-02)2 May 1737 Whig
Spouses	Sophia Carteret ​ ​ (m. 1765; died 1771)​ Louisa FitzPatrick ​ ​ (m. 1779; died 1789)​
Children	3
Parent	John Petty, 1st Earl of Shelburne (father)
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Great Britain
Branch/service	British Army
Rank	General
Battles/wars	Seven Years' War

William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne (2 May 1737 – 7 May 1805), known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history, was an Anglo-Irish

Fitzmaurice spent his childhood "in the remotest parts of the south of Ireland,"[a] and, according to his own account, when he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1755, he had "both everything to learn and everything to unlearn".

From a

Shortly after leaving the university, he served in

However, on 14 May 1761, before either Parliament met, he succeeded on his father's death as the second Earl of Shelburne in the Peerage of Ireland and the second Baron Wycombe in the Peerage of Great Britain.^[11] As a result, he lost his seat in both Houses of Commons and moved up to the House of Lords, though he would not take his seat in the Irish House of Lords until April 1764.^[7] He was succeeded in Wycombe by one of his supporters Colonel Isaac Barré who had a distinguished war record after serving with James Wolfe in Canada.^{[citation needed]}

Shelburne, who was a descendant of the father of quantitative economics,

I owe to a journey I made with Mr Smith from Edinburgh to London, the difference between light and darkness through the best part of my life. The novelty of his principles, added to my youth and prejudices, made me unable to comprehend them at the time, but he urged them with so much benevolence, as well as eloquence, that they took a certain hold, which, though it did not develop itself so as to arrive at full conviction for some few years after, I can fairly say, has constituted, ever since, the happiness of my life, as well as any little consideration I may have enjoyed in it.[16]

Ritcheson is dubious on whether the journey with Smith actually happened, but provides no evidence to the contrary. There is proof that Shelburne did consult with Smith on at least one occasion, and Smith was close to Shelburne's father and his brother.^[17]

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Shelburne's new military role close to the King brought him into communication with Lord Bute, who was the King's closest advisor and a senior minister in the government. In 1761 Shelburne was employed by Bute to negotiate for the support of Henry Fox. Fox held the lucrative but unimportant post of Paymaster of the Forces, but commanded large support in the House of Commons and could boost Bute's power base. Shelburne was opposed to Pitt, who had resigned from the government in 1761. Under instructions from Shelburne, Barré made a vehement attack on Pitt in the House of Commons.

In 1762 negotiations for a peace agreement went on in London and Paris. Eventually, a deal was agreed but it was heavily criticised for the perceived leniency of its terms as it handed back a number of captured territories to France and Spain. Defending it in the House of Lords, Shelburne observed "the security of the British colonies in North America was the first cause of the war" asserting that security "has been wisely attended to in the negotiations for peace".^[18] Led by Fox, the government was able to push the peace treaty through parliament despite opposition led by Pitt. Shortly afterwards, Bute chose to resign as Prime Minister and retire from politics and was replaced by George Grenville.

Shelburne joined the Grenville ministry in 1763 as First Lord of Trade. By this stage, Shelburne had changed his opinion of Pitt and become an admirer of him. After failing to secure Pitt's inclusion in the Cabinet he resigned office after only a few months. Having moreover on account of his support of Pitt on the question of John Wilkes's expulsion from the House of Commons incurred the displeasure of the King, he retired for a time to his estate.^[2]

After Pitt's return to power in 1766, he became

In June 1768 the General Court incorporated the district of Shelburne, Massachusetts from the area formerly known as "Deerfield Northeast" and in 1786 the district became a town. The town was named in honour of Lord Shelburne, who, in return sent a church bell, which never reached the town.

Shelburne went into Opposition where he continued to associate with

In March 1782, following the downfall of the North ministry, Shelburne agreed to take office under Lord Rockingham on condition that the King would recognise the United States. Following the sudden and unexpected death of Lord Rockingham on 1 July 1782, Shelburne succeeded him as Prime Minister. Shelburne's appointment by the King provoked Charles James Fox and his supporters, including Edmund Burke, to resign their posts on 4 July 1782.^[19] Burke scathingly compared Shelburne to his predecessor Rockingham. One of the figures brought in as a replacement was the 23-year-old William Pitt, son of Shelburne's former political ally, who became Chancellor of the Exchequer. That year,^{[year needed]} Shelburne was appointed to the Order of the Garter as its 599th Knight.

Shelburne's government continued negotiations begun in early 1782 under Rockingham for peace in Paris, using Richard Oswald as the chief negotiator. Shelburne entertained a French peace envoy Joseph Matthias Gérard de Rayneval at his country estate in Wiltshire, and they discreetly agreed on a number of points which formed a basis for peace. Shelburne's own envoys negotiated a separate peace with American commissioners which eventually led to an agreement on American independence and the borders of the newly created United States. Shelburne agreed to generous borders in the Illinois Country, but rejected demands by Benjamin Franklin for the cession of Canada and other territories. Historians have often commented that the treaty was very generous to the United States in terms of greatly enlarged boundaries. Historians such as Alvord, Harlow and Ritcheson have emphasized that British generosity was based on Shelburne's statesmanlike vision of close economic ties between Britain and the United States. The concession of the vast trans-Appalachian areas was designed to facilitate the growth of the American population and create lucrative markets for British merchants, without any military or administrative costs to Britain.^[20] The point was the United States would become a major trading partner. As the French foreign minister Vergennes later put it, "The English buy peace rather than make it".^[21]

Fox's resignation in 1782 led to the unexpected creation of

Shelburn's fall was perhaps hastened by his plans for the reform of the public service. He had also in contemplation a Bill to promote free trade between Britain and the United States.^[2]

When

First to Lady Sophia Carteret (26 August 1745 – 5 January 1771), daughter of John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, through whom he obtained the Lansdowne estates near Bath. They had at least one child:

• John Henry Petty, 2nd Marquess of Lansdowne (6 December 1765 – 15 November 1809), sat from 1786 in his father's interest House of Commons for Chipping Wycombe. After witnessing revolutionary events in Paris, he began to establish an independent reputation as a critic of the war with France and of the suppression of democratic agitation at home. In Ireland, to which he repaired in 1797, he was suspected by the Dublin Castle administration of being a party to Robert Emmet's conspiracy to renew the United Irish rebellion of 1798 with a rising Dublin. He died, without issue, within four years of his father's death in 1809, aged 43.^[25][26]

Secondly, to Lady Louisa FitzPatrick (1755 – 7 August 1789), daughter of the 1st Earl of Upper Ossory. They had at least one child:

• Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), who succeeded his half-brother in the title.

Lord Lansdowne's brother,

University College London holds over 4000 tracts in its Lansdowne and Halifax tracts collections, the former being named after Petty.^[27] 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.^[27]

• Lansdowne portrait

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Literature

• Cannon, John. "Petty, William, second earl of Shelburne and first marquess of Lansdowne (1737–1805)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press, 2004); online edn, Sept 2013 accessed 16 Nov 2014 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22070
• OCLC 3220064 (complete list of all editions)
  .
• Fleming, Thomas. The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival After Yorktown. First Smithsonian books, 2008.
• Middleton, Charles. The Bells of Victory: The Pitt-North Ministry and the Conduct of the Seven Years' War, 1757–1762. Cambridge University Press, 1985.
• Nelson, Paul David. Sir Charles Grey, First Earl Grey: Royal Soldier, Family Patriarch. Associated University Presses, 1996.
• Norris, John. Shelburne and Reform. Macmillan, 1963. online
• Ritcheson, Charles R. "The Earl of Shelbourne and Peace with America, 1782–1783: Vision and Reality." International History Review (1983) 5#3 pp: 322–345. online
• Schweizer, Karl W. (ed.) Lord Bute: Essays in Reinterpritation. Leicester University Press, 1998.
• Simpson, W. O. "Lord Shelburne and North America." History Today (Jan 1960) 19#1 pp 52–62.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne.

• Works by or about William Petty-Fitzmaurice at Wikisource
• More about William Petty, Earl of Shelburne on the Downing Street website.
• William Petty, 1st Marquis of Lansdowne, 2nd Earl of Shelburne papers, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan.
• Lansdowne and Halifax Tracts at University College London

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by The Earl of Shelburne Edmund Waller	Member of Parliament for Wycombe 1760 – 1761 With: Edmund Waller 1760–1761 Robert Waller 1761	Succeeded by Robert Waller Isaac Barré
Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by John Blennerhassett Lancelot Crosbie	Member of Parliament for County Kerry 1761–1762 With: John Blennerhassett	Succeeded by John Blennerhassett John Blennerhassett
Political offices
Preceded by Charles Townshend	First Lord of Trade 1763	Succeeded by The Earl of Hillsborough
Preceded by The Duke of Richmond	Secretary of State for the Southern Department 1766–1768	Succeeded by The Viscount Weymouth
Preceded by The Earl of Hillsborough as Secretary of State for the Southern Department	Home Secretary 1782	Succeeded by Thomas Townshend
Preceded by The Viscount Stormont	Leader of the House of Lords 1782–1783	Succeeded by The Duke of Portland
Preceded by The Marquess of Rockingham	Prime Minister of Great Britain 4 July 1782 – 26 March 1783
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation	Marquess of Lansdowne 1784–1805	Succeeded by John Petty
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by John Petty	Earl of Shelburne 1761–1805	Succeeded by John Petty