Frederick North, Lord North
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| The Rt Hon. Lord North | |
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| In office 28 January, 1770 – 22 March 1782 | |
| Preceded by | The Duke of Grafton |
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| Succeeded by | The Marquess of Rockingham |
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| In office September 11, 1767 – March 27, 1782 | |
| Preceded by | Charles Townshend |
| Succeeded by | Lord John Cavendish |
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| Born | 13 April 1732 Piccadilly, London |
| Died | 5 August 1792 Grosvenor Square, London |
| Political party | Tory |
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, KG , PC (April 13, 1732 – August 5, 1792), more often known by his earlier title, Lord North, was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782, and a major actor in the American Revolution.
Lord North was born at Wroxton Abbey as the eldest of six children; his parents were Francis, first Earl of Guilford, and Lady Lucy Montagu. The other children came from Guilford's second marriage. North had a full sister Lucy who is said to have married a tradesman, whereupon her family denied her existence; however, recent research has failed to find any contemporary evidence of the period to support that story beyond any reasonable doubt.
He was educated at Eton College between 1742 and 1748, and at Trinity College, Oxford where in 1750 he was awarded an MA. After leaving Oxford he travelled in Europe, visiting Leipzig where he studied at the University of Leipzig. He visited Vienna, Milan and Paris, returning to England in 1753.
He served as a Member of Parliament from 1754 to 1790 and first joined the government as a junior Lord of the Treasury on June 2, 1759 during the Newcastle-Pitt coalition. North was appointed Joint Paymaster of the Forces in Chatham's ministry and became a Privy Counsellor in 1766.
In December, 1767, he succeeded Charles Townshend as Chancellor of the Exchequer. When the Duke of Grafton resigned as Prime Minister, North formed a government on January 28, 1770. He resigned on March 27, 1782, after a vote of no confidence — the first ever — resulting from the British defeat at Yorktown the year before.He proposed the Conciliation Plan attempting to end the war. In this plan, he promised that Britain would eliminate all disagreeable acts if the colonies ended the war. The colonies rejected the plan showing their motivation to become independent. (He is famously supposed to have cried, "Oh God! It's all over! It's all over!" when this happened). Most of his government was focused first on the growing problems with the American colonies and later on the actual Revolutionary War.
In April, 1783, North returned to power as Home Secretary in an unlikely coalition with the radical Whig leader Charles James Fox known as the Fox-North Coalition under the nominal leadership of The Duke of Portland. George III, who detested Fox, never forgave this supposed betrayal, and North never again served in government after the ministry fell in December, 1783.
He left his seat in Parliament when he went blind in 1790. Later he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Guilford, so he spent his final years in the House of Lords. He died on August 7, 1792 in London and was buried at All Saints' Church, Wroxton (Oxfordshire) near his family home of Wroxton Abbey.
Ironically, North's family home, Wroxton Abbey is now owned by Fairleigh Dickinson University, an American college. The now modernized abbey currently serves as a location for American students to study abroad.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Charles Townshend | Paymaster of the Forces 1766–1767 (jointly with George Cooke) | Succeeded by: George Cooke and Thomas Townshend |
| Preceded by: Charles Townshend | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1767–1782 | Succeeded by: The Lord John Cavendish |
| Leader of the House of Commons 1767–1782 | Succeeded by: Charles James Fox | |
| Preceded by: The Duke of Grafton | Prime Minister 1770–1782 | Succeeded by: The Marquess of Rockingham |
| Preceded by: The Earl of Holdernesse | Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports 1778–1792 | Succeeded by: William Pitt the Younger |
| Preceded by: Thomas Townshend | Home Secretary 1783 | Succeeded by: The Earl Temple |
| Leader of the House of Commons 1783 (jointly with Charles James Fox) | Succeeded by: William Pitt the Younger | |
| Honorary Titles | ||
| Preceded by: Duke of Bedford | President of the Foundling Hospital 1771–1793 | Succeeded by: Duke of Portland |
| Peerage of Great Britain | ||
| Preceded by: Francis North | Earl of Guilford 1790–1792 | Succeeded by: George Augustus North |
| Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
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| Walpole, Wilmington, Pelham, Newcastle, Devonshire, Newcastle, Bute, G Grenville, Rockingham, Chatham (Pitt the Elder), Grafton, North, Rockingham, Shelburne, Portland, Pitt the Younger, Addington, Pitt the Younger, W Grenville, Portland, Perceval, Liverpool, Canning, Goderich, Wellington, Grey, Melbourne, Peel, Melbourne, Peel, Russell, Derby, Aberdeen, Palmerston, Derby, Palmerston, Russell, Derby, Disraeli, Gladstone, Disraeli, Gladstone, Salisbury, Gladstone, Salisbury, Gladstone, Rosebery, Salisbury, Balfour, Campbell-Bannerman, Asquith, Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Baldwin, MacDonald, Baldwin, MacDonald, Baldwin, Chamberlain, Churchill, Attlee, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Wilson, Heath, Wilson, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major, Blair |
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Categories: Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom | British Secretaries of State | Chancellors of the Exchequer | Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom | British officials in the American Revolution | Lords Warden of the Cinque Ports | Former students of Trinity College, Oxford | Old Etonians | Earls in the Peerage of Great Britain | Knights of the Garter | 1732 births | 1792 deaths | Paymasters of the Forces
