- Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley
-
The Right Honourable
The Lord Bexley
PC, FRS, FSAPortrait, oil on canvas, of Lord Bexley by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Chancellor of the Exchequer In office
12 May 1812 – 31 January 1823Monarch George III, George IV Prime Minister The Earl of Liverpool Preceded by Hon. Spencer Perceval Succeeded by Hon. F. J. Robinson Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster In office
13 February 1823 – 26 January 1828Monarch George IV Prime Minister The Earl of Liverpool
George Canning
Viscount GoderichPreceded by Charles Bathurst Succeeded by The Earl of Aberdeen Personal details Born 29 April 1766
Bloomsbury, LondonDied 8 February 1851
Foots Cray, KentNationality British Political party Tory Spouse(s) Hon. Catherine Isabella Eden
(1778–1810)Alma mater Christ Church, Oxford Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley PC, FRS, FSA (29 April 1766 – 8 February 1851) was an English politician, and one of the longest-serving Chancellors of the Exchequer in British history.
Contents
Background and education
The fifth son of Henry Vansittart (died 1770), the Governor of Bengal, Vansittart was born in Bloomsbury, Middlesex, and raised in Bray, Berkshire. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he took his degree in 1787, and was called to the bar at Lincolns Inn. From the early 1770s he was living with his mother at 60 Crooms Hill, Greenwich.
Political career
Vansittart began his public career by writing pamphlets in defence of the administration of William Pitt, especially on its financial side, and in May 1796 became Member of Parliament for Hastings, retaining his seat until July 1802, when he was returned for Old Sarum. In February 1801 he was sent on a diplomatic errand to Copenhagen, and shortly after his return was appointed joint Secretary to the Treasury, a position which he retained until the resignation of 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.
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.
When Vansittart became Chancellor of the Exchequer the country was burdened with heavy taxation and an enormous debt. Nevertheless, the continuance of the Napoleonic Wars compelled him to increase the customs duties and other taxes, and in 1813 he introduced a complicated scheme for dealing with the sinking fund. In 1816, after the conclusion of peace, a large decrease in taxation was generally desired, and there was a loud outcry when the Chancellor proposed only to reduce, not to abolish, the property or income tax. The abolition of this tax, however, was carried in parliament, and Vansittart was also obliged to remit the extra tax on malt, meeting a large deficiency principally by borrowing. He devoted considerable attention to effecting real or supposed economies with regard to the 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.
Vansittart became very unpopular in the country, and he resigned his office in December 1822. His system of finance was severely criticized by William Huskisson, Tierney, Brougham, Hume and Ricardo. On his resignation Liverpool offered Vansittart the post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Accepting this offer in February 1823, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Bexley, of Bexley in the County of Kent, in March,[1] and granted a pension of £3000 a year. He resigned in January 1828. In the House of Lords, Bexley took very little part in public business, although he introduced the Spitalfields Weavers Bill in 1823, and voted for Catholic Emancipation in 1824. He took a good deal of interest in the British and Foreign Bible Mission, the Church Missionary Society and kindred bodies, funded Kenyon college and seminary on the U.S. western frontier (the seminary is now named Bexley Hall in his honour) and assisted in founding King's College London.[2]
Family
Lord Bexley married the Hon. 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.[3] 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. There are nine volumes of Vansittart's papers in the British Library.
References
- ^ London Gazette: no. 17896. p. 251. 15 February 1823.
- ^ Bexley and Coburn Halls at Kenyon College website. Retrieved on September 8, 2006.
- ^ Vansittart, Nicholas, first Baron Bexley (1766–1851), politician, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Nicholas Vansittart
- Vansittart Arms - named after Nicholas, 1st Baron Bexley
Political offices Preceded by
Charles LongSecretary to the Treasury
(junior)
1801–1802Succeeded by
John SargentPreceded by
John Hiley AddingtonSecretary to the Treasury
(senior)
1802–1804Succeeded by
William HuskissonPreceded by
Sir Evan Nepean, BtChief Secretary for Ireland
1805Succeeded by
Charles LongPreceded by
William HuskissonSecretary to the Treasury
(senior)
1806–1807Succeeded by
William HuskissonPreceded by
Hon. Spencer PercevalChancellor of the Exchequer
1812–1823Succeeded by
Hon. F. J. RobinsonPreceded by
Charles BathurstChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1823–1828Succeeded by
The Earl of AberdeenParliament of Great Britain Preceded by
John Stanley
Robert DundasMember of Parliament for Hastings
1796–1801
With: Sir James Sanderson, Bt 1796–1798
William Sturges 1798–1801Succeeded by
Parliament of the United KingdomParliament of the United Kingdom Preceded by
Parliament of Great BritainMember of Parliament for Hastings
1801–1802
With: William Sturges 1801–1802Succeeded by
The Lord Glenbervie
George William GunningPreceded by
George Hardinge
John Horne TookeMember of Parliament for Old Sarum
1802–1812Succeeded by
Josias du Pre Porcher
James AlexanderPreceded by
Viscount Primrose
Sir John Shelley, BtMember of Parliament for Helston
1806–1807
With: John Du PonthieuSucceeded by
John Du Ponthieu
Thomas BrandPreceded by
Charles Rose Ellis
George GunningMember of Parliament for East Grinstead
1812
With: Charles Rose EllisSucceeded by
George Gunning
James StephenPreceded by
John Hiley Addington
William HuskissonMember of Parliament for Harwich
1812–1823
With: John Hiley Addington 1812–1818
Charles Bathurst 1818–1823Succeeded by
George Canning
J. C. HerriesPeerage of the United Kingdom New creation Baron Bexley
1823–1851Extinct Categories:- 1766 births
- 1851 deaths
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