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Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney

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Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney (24 February 1732 - 30 June 1800), was a British politician who held several important Cabinet posts in the second half of the 18th century. His most enduring legacy is probably that the city of Sydney, Australia was named in his honour.

[edit] Biography

Townshend was born at Frognal House, near Chislehurst in Kent, and was educated at Clare College, Cambridge University. Townshend was elected to the House of Commons in 1754 as Whig member for Whitchurch and held that seat till his elevation to the peerage. He initially aligned himself with his great uncle Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle but later joined William Pitt the Elder in opposition to George Grenville.

Townshend was a lord of the treasury in the first Rockingham ministry and continued in that office in the Pitt (now Lord Chatham) administration until December 1767, when he became a member of the Privy Council and joint-Paymaster of the Forces. During the ministry of Lord Chatham and Lord Grafton he supported the position his cousin Charles Townshend was in with regard to the American revenue program. Townshend was forced out of office in June, 1768 by Grafton who wanted Rigby as Paymaster of the Forces to gain favour with the Duke of Bedford<ref>The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004: article by Ian K. R. Archer</ref>.

Townshend remained in opposition until the end of Lord North's ministry and spoke frequently in the House of Commons against the American war. Although he had no close party connection, he was inclined toward the Chathamites. He took office again as secretary at war in the second Rockingham ministry. When the 2nd Earl of Shelburne became prime minister in July 1782, Townshend succeeded him as Secretary of State for the Home Department and became Leader of the House of Commons. He was created Baron Sydney and entered the House of Lords in 1783. He took the title Sydney to commemorate his descent from Robert Sydney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, who traced his descent from a Surrey yeoman, John de Sydenie. The name Sydney derives from a village in Normandy called Saint-Denis.[citation needed]

He opposed the Fox-North coalition and returned to political office with Pitt, serving as Home Secretary from 1783 to 1789. Following the loss of the North American colonies, Townshend, as Home Secretary in the Pitt Government, was given responsibility for devising a plan to settle convicts at Botany Bay. His choice of Arthur Phillip as Governor was inspired and Phillip's leadership was instrumental in ensuring the penal colony survived the early years of struggle and famine. On 22 January 1788, Phillip named Sydney Cove in honour of Townshend and the settlement became known as Sydney Town. In 1789 he was created Viscount Sydney.

Sydney's reputation has suffered at the hands of the nationalist school of Australian historians, such as Manning Clark. In his influential A History of Australia (Melbourne University Press 1961) Clark wrote: "Mr Thomas Townshend, commonly denominated Tommy Townshend, owed his political career to a very independent fortune and a considerable parliamentary interest, which contributed to his personal no less than his political elevation, for his abilities, though respectable, scarcely rose above mediocrity." Other writers have portrayed Sydney as a cruel monster for dispatching the unfortunate convicts to the far side of the earth.

In fact, Townshend was, by the standards of his time, an enlightened and progressive politician. He did not support the American Revolution but was a strong opponent against the war which he thought was pointless and needlessly prolonged during Lord North’s ministry. As Home Secretary/Foreign Secretary he was heavily involved in the development of Canada and the settling of fleeing refugees from the intolerant rebels. The city of Sydney in Nova Scotia is named after him in memory of his efforts on behalf of the loyalist settlers of Canada.

More recently Townshend's reputation has been revisited by Australian historians. Alan Atkinson wrote in The Europeans in Australia (Oxford University Press, 1997): "Townshend was an anomaly in the British Cabinet, and his ideas were in some ways old-fashioned... He had long been interested in the way in which the empire might be a medium for British liberties, traditionally understood." He took the view that convicts should be given the chance to redeem themselves through self-government in penal colonies such as New South Wales. Governor Phillip's well-known statement that "There will no slavery in a new country and hence no slaves" is an accurate reflection of Townshend's philosophy.

Sydney's papers are held by the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan.

[edit] Timeline of Townshend's life and career

[edit] Notes

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Political offices
Preceded by:
Lord North
and George Cooke 		Paymaster of the Forces
jointly with George Cooke
1767–1768 		Succeeded by:
Richard Rigby
Preceded by:
Charles Jenkinson 		Secretary at War
1782 		Succeeded by:
Sir George Yonge
Preceded by:
The Earl of Shelburne 		Home Secretary
1782–1783 		Succeeded by:
Lord North
Preceded by:
Charles James Fox 		Leader of the House of Commons
1782–1783 		Succeeded by:
Lord North
and Charles James Fox
Preceded by:
The Earl Temple 		Home Secretary
1783–1789 		Succeeded by:
The Lord Grenville
Preceded by:
The Duke of Portland 		Leader of the House of Lords
1783–1789 		Succeeded by:
The Duke of Leeds
Preceded by:
The Lord Grantham

(as First Lord of Trade)

President of the Committee on Trade and Foreign Plantations
1784–1786 		Succeeded by:
The Lord Hawkesbury

(as President of the Board of Trade)

Preceded by:
New Office 		President of the Board of Control
1784–1790 		Succeeded by:
The Lord Grenville
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by:
New Creation 		Viscount Sydney
1789—1800 		Succeeded by:
John Townshend
de:Thomas Townshend, 1. Viscount Sydney
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