His Grace The Duke of Grafton KG PC
Portrait by Nathaniel Dance-Holland
Prime Minister of Great Britain
In office 14 October 1768 – 28 January 1770
Monarch	George III
Preceded by	The Earl of Chatham
Succeeded by	Lord North
Northern Secretary
In office 12 July 1765 – 14 May 1766
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Rockingham
Preceded by	The Earl of Halifax
Succeeded by	Henry Seymour Conway
Personal details
Born	Augustus Henry FitzRoy (1735-09-28)28 September 1735
Died	14 March 1811(1811-03-14) (aged 75) Euston, Suffolk, England
Resting place	St Genevieve Churchyard, Euston, Suffolk, England
Political party	Whig
Spouses	Anne Liddell ​ ​ (m. 1756; div. 1769)​ Elizabeth Wrottesley ​ ​ (m. 1769)​
Children	12; including George, William and John
Parent	Lord Augustus FitzRoy (father)
Alma mater	Peterhouse, Cambridge
Signature

Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, KG, PC (28 September 1735 – 14 March 1811), styled Earl of Euston between 1747 and 1757, was a British Whig statesman of the Georgian era. He is one of a handful of dukes who have served as prime minister.

He became prime minister in 1768 at the age of 33, leading the supporters of William Pitt, and was the youngest person to hold the office until the appointment of William Pitt the Younger 15 years later. However, he struggled to demonstrate an ability to counter increasing challenges to Britain's global dominance following the nation's victory in the Seven Years' War. He was widely attacked for allowing France to annex Corsica, and stepped down in 1770, handing over power to Lord North.

Background

Family

He was a son of Lord Augustus FitzRoy, a captain in the Royal Navy,^{[citation needed]} and Elizabeth Cosby, the daughter of Colonel William Cosby, who served as a colonial Governor of New York. His father was the third son of the 2nd Duke of Grafton and Lady Henrietta Somerset, which made FitzRoy a great-grandson of both the 1st Duke of Grafton and the Marquess of Worcester. He was notably a fourth-generation descendant of King Charles II and the 1st Duchess of Cleveland; the surname FitzRoy stems from this illegitimacy. His younger brother was the 1st Baron Southampton. Since the death of his uncle in 1747, he was styled Earl of Euston as his grandfather's heir apparent.

Lord Euston was educated at Newcome's School in Hackney and at Westminster School, made the Grand Tour, and obtained a degree at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge.^[1]

Early political career (1756-1765)

Member of Parliament

In 1756, he entered Parliament as MP for Boroughbridge, a pocket borough; several months later, he switched constituencies to Bury St Edmunds, which was controlled by his family. However, a year later, his grandfather died, and he succeeded as the 3rd Duke of Grafton, which elevated him to the House of Lords.

He first became known in politics as an opponent of Lord Bute,^[2] a favourite of King George III. Early in his political career, the Duke of Grafton became associated with the "young friends" of the Duke of Newcastle. These men met at Grafton's London home to organise a formal opposition to Bute's peace preliminaries to end the Seven Years' War. Grafton's maiden speech attacked the peace proposals and consequently, Grafton became one of the victims of the "Massacre of the Pelhamite Innocents", being deprived of his Lord Lieutenancy of Suffolk.

Grafton aligned himself with Duke of Newcastle against Lord Bute, whose term as prime minister was short-lived largely because it was felt that the peace terms to which he had agreed at the Treaty of Paris were not a sufficient return for Britain's performance in the Seven Years' War.

In Government (1765-1768)

Privy Counsellor and Northern Secretary

In 1765, Grafton’s first appointment and first time in government was as a Privy Counsellor in the given of then Prime minister, following discussions with William Pitt the Elder. He was also appointed Northern Secretary in Lord Rockingham's first government. He in this capacity, was in charge of domestic affairs and did much to decrease the national debt and the rising unemployment rate in Britain. He also supported acts that exerted the British Parliament’s control over the American colonies and endorsed the Declaratory Act of 1767. However, he retired the following year largely because of the internal conflict and strife in the government between ministers of various ideals as to solve the crisis in the Thirteen colonies.

Then, as ever, Grafton was anxious to obtain Pitt's assistance, but the great commoner was not approving of the new cabinet, and especially objected to the Duke of Newcastle's inclusion in it. Weak as it was, without the support of the King or of Pitt, and without cohesion among themselves, the Rockingham ministry dragged on for some months. Grafton threw up the seals in May 1766, when he stated in the House of Lords that he had not gone out of office 'from a love of ease and indulgence to his private amusements, as had been falsely reported, but because they wanted strength, which one man only could supply ;' and that 'though he had carried a general's staff, he was ready to take up a mattock or spade under that able and great minister.' After infighting and internal conflict had ravaged the Whigs, Rockingham resigned the following year.

First Lord of the Treasury

Following Rockingham’s immediate resignation, the elderly, but politically experienced Pitt (by then Lord Chatham) was invited by the King to form a new ministry in which Grafton was appointed the First Lord of the Treasury but not as the prime minister, one of the only cases the office of Prime minister did not held the ceremonial position of First Lord.

In May 1767, Grafton was unable to prevent Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, from proposing the American Import Duties Bill to the House of Commons. The intention of the legislation was to raise a revenue from the colonies: this had been one of the reasons for the colonial problems of 1765-66 after the imposition of the Stamp Act. Townshend died soon after his legislation was passed, but his legacy was war with the colonies beginning in 1775. Grafton remained as First Lord despite many of his incapabilities in his office. ^[3]

But by 1768, Chatham became ill and distressed over the issues in the Americas and the work of government did much to Chatham‘s health and rendering him incapacitated and incapable of running the government. By this point Grafton, as First Lord, took over control of government affairs during Chatham‘s incapacitation. On September 20, 1769, he was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Garter.

Prime Minister (1768-1770)

Appointment

Chatham's deteriorating health and illness, at the end of 1767, incapacitated him from leading his role any further and the deteriorating situation in America caused more issues than solutions to the problem and so resulted in Grafton becoming the government's effective leader (he is credited with entering the office of prime minister in 1768) and officially served as the First Lord of the Treasury until being appointed to the premiership by the King.

Grafton, was an ineffective and incapable leader, whose government was seen as a weak and without a stable majority. In order to be in power and to maintain a strong majority in Parliament he called on the supporters of the Duke of Bedford and Lord Rockingham, known as Bedford whigs and Rockinghamites respectively and also on the the Tories under Frederick North to form a coalition government.

Grafton also included in his government the Earl Gower as Lord Privy Seal, Lord Hillsborough as Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Viscount Weymouth as Secretary of State for the Southern Department, North as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Lord Camden as Lord High Chancellor being the most influential ministers of his government.

Foreign affairs

The Corsican crisis

The island of Corsica gained independence from the Republic of Genoa in the 1750s and established itself as a republic following the Corsican Revolution in 1755. Pascale Paoli declared the founding of the Corsican Republic, which controlled over much of the island. Paoli then had created the Corsican Constitution largely modelled on and influenced by the British one. Paoli saw Britain, not only as a example of aspiration, but as a potential foreign ally because of Britain’s enmity of France and because mainly of the reason that Britain was always supportive of Corsican exiles. Paoli went on to establish a permanent alliance with Great Britain and opened a consulate there.

Britain’s relations with France had remained strained ever since the Treaty of Paris that had brought an end to the Seven Years’ War in 1763. In the Treaty of Versailles, Genoa and France signed a secret treaty as a scheme by which Genoa sold Corsica to France, therefore guaranteeing France to invade the country. Primarily of wanting to strike back at the British for it’s humiliating defeat in the war, the French Foreign minister Choiseul ordered the invasion and capture of the island and by 1768, landed French troops in the island and attempted to exert it’s control over the country with the entirety of it’s force. France complete military control after the defeat of the Corsicans at the Battle of Ponte Novu in the May of 1769.

Initially, Grafton and Secretary of State Lord Shelburne opposed the seizure and invasion of Corsica by the French, but did not openly intervene in the conflict, despite calls for the the British government to take the side of the Corsicans. The main reason was that Britain had it’s importance to the events in the Thirteen colonies in the Americas. Consequently, the British were inclined to appease France over Corsica, thus leaving it to fall to the French. Grafton was heavily criticised by those in Britain because of his in capability to intervene and save the Corsican Republic, leading to more dissatisfaction over his government’s foreign policies.

Lack of allies

By this point, the number of allies Britain had, had dwindled since the years between the 1740s and 1760s, and Britain became more isolated in the continent. The only allies it did had were Prussia, the Scandinavian countries, Russia and Portugal. British relations with France, Spain and the Dutch Republic were strained and were not in good terms. Especially when after the Treaty of Paris and during the invasion of Corsica, when Britain desperately tried to not intervene in the war. During the early years of the American Revolution, when it seemed that war might occur, the French were seeing an opportunity to get back at Britain for it’s humiliation in the Seven Years’ War. Furthermore, the French, together with the Spanish, allies against Britain in the wake of war.

Domestic affairs

Middlesex election controversy

General Granby resigned as Master-General of the Ordnance in protest and Charles Yorke, the man who subsequently replaced Camden as Lord Chancellor, committed suicide.

Beside this, the impact of the Corsican Crisis and disasters abroad brought new criticism in and more opposition to the government as a result. But the most damaging was the attacks of "Junius", whose ridicule of Grafton and the criticism of his peers, led to the government becoming more unpopular and more hated. This all proved to be too much for Grafton who resigned and was succeeded by Chancellor Frederick North.

Post-premiership (1770-1811)

Lord Privy Seal

Also, in 1768, Grafton became Chancellor of Cambridge University.^[4] He did not initially retire from high politics afterwards. Although, soon after he resigned as Prime minister, after a brief period being out of office, he did accept the office of Lord Privy Seal under Lord North. This led to calls for Grafton to resign from office immediately and after a turbulent year in office, he resigned the following year.

From that time he remained out of office, and to his credit, it could be said that although he had a numerous family he obtained 'no place, pension, or reversion whatever.' After much persuasion from the king’s friends, he became Lord Privy Seal again in Lord North’s ministry. But resigned in 1775, being in favour of conciliatory action towards the American colonists and 'with a kind of proud humility,' refused a seat in the cabinet. This step exposed him to varying comment. The king wrote, 'Nothing can be more handsome than his manner of accepting the privy seal,' but Horace Walpole sneeringly wrote, that it came 'of not being proud.'

Despite initially supporting raising taxes on the Americas, Grafton himself gave out in after years that he accepted office in the hope of preventing the quarrel with America from being pushed to the extreme, and his views probably always leant to the side of the colonists. In August 1775 he wrote to Lord North, warmly urging the desirability of a reconciliation, but the prime minister did not reply for seven weeks, when the substance of his answer was a draft of the king's speech. His resignation was daily expected on 3 November. The king thought that the seal of office should be sent for, but on 9 November, Grafton resigned, and at once took public action against his late colleagues.

An attempt was made in February ​1779 to attach him and some of Chatham's followers to the North ministry, but it failed, and he remained out of office until the formation of the Second Rockingham ministry in March 1782, and he joined the cabinet as Lord Privy Seal yet again. Though he acquiesced in the accession of Lord Shelburne on Rockingham's death in the following July, he did not cordially act with Shelburne, and the downfall of the ministry in April 1783, was probably a relief to him.

Religious interests

In later years, he was a prominent Unitarian, being one of the early members of the inaugural Essex Street Chapel under Rev. Theophilus Lindsey when it was founded in 1774. Grafton had associated with a number of liberal Anglican theologians when at Cambridge, and devoted much time to theological study and writing after leaving office as prime minister. In 1773, in the House of Lords, he supported a bill to release Anglican clergy from subscribing to all the Thirty-nine Articles. He became a supporter of moral reform among the wealthy and of changes to the church. He was the author of:

• Hints Submitted to the Serious Attention of the Clergy, Nobility and Gentry, by a Layman (1789).
• Serious Reflections of a Rational Christian from 1788–1797.

He was a sponsor of Richard Watson's Consideration of the Expediency of Revising the Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England (published in 1790), and he funded the printing of 700 copies of Griesbach's edition of the Greek New Testament in 1796.^[5]

Horseracing

The Duke also had horse racing interests. His racing colours were sky blue, with a black cap.^[6]

Legacy

Grafton County, New Hampshire,^[7] in the United States, is named in his honour, as is the city of Grafton, New South Wales, Australia, the town of Grafton, New York, the unincorporated community of Grafton, Virginia, and possibly the township (since 1856 a city) of Grafton, West Virginia. The Grafton Centre Shopping Mall in Cambridge is also named after him and indeed lies on Fitzroy Street. Cape Grafton in Far North Queensland was named after him by Lieutenant James Cook during his first voyage of discovery.

Grafton had the longest post-premiership of any prime minister in British history, totalling 41 years and 45 days.^[8]

Family

Anne Liddell

Grafton's first wife, Anne Liddell

Grafton's second wife, Elizabeth Wrottesley

On 29 January 1756, he married The Hon. Anne Liddell, daughter of Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth (1708–1784), at Lord Ravensworth's house in St James's Square, by licence. The marriage was witnessed by Lord Ravensworth and Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Earl of Hertford.^[9]

Augustus and Anne had three children:

• Lady Georgiana FitzRoy^[10] (8 May 1757 – 18 January 1799),^[11] who married John Smyth (12 February 1748 – 12 February 1811) on 4 June 1778.
• George Henry FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton (1760–1844)
• General Lord Charles FitzRoy (14 July 1764 – 20 December 1829), who married, firstly, Frances Mundy (1773 – 9 August 1797) on 20 June 1795, and had one son. He married, secondly, Lady Frances Stewart (24 June 1777 – 9 February 1810) on 10 March 1799 and had three children. His sons Sir Charles FitzRoy (1796–1858), governor of New South Wales, and Robert FitzRoy, the hydrographer, were notable for their achievements.^[12]

In 1764, the Duke had a very public affair with the courtesan Nancy Parsons^[13] whom he kept at his townhouse and took to the opera, where they allegedly were found in flagrante delicto. This brazen lack of convention offended society's standards. After the Duchess had become pregnant by her own lover, the Earl of Upper Ossory, she and the Duke were divorced by Act of Parliament, passed 23 March 1769.^{[14][page needed]}

Elizabeth Wrottesley

Three months after the Duke divorced his first wife, on 24 June 1769, the Duke married Elizabeth Wrottesley (1 November 1745 – 25 May 1822), daughter of the Reverend Sir Richard Wrottesley, Dean of Worcester.^[15] They had the following children:

• Lord Henry FitzRoy (9 April 1770 – 7 June 1828), clergyman; he married Caroline Pigot (died 1 January 1835) on 10 September 1800 and had five children. Ancestor of Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick.
• Lord Frederick FitzRoy (born 16 September 1774; died young).
• Lady Augusta FitzRoy (1779 – 29 June 1839), who married Rev. George F. Tavel (died 1829) on 19 November 1811.
• Lady Frances FitzRoy (1 June 1780 – 7 January 1866), who married the 1st Baron Churchill on 25 November 1800.
• Admiral Lord William FitzRoy (1 June 1782 – 13 May 1857), who married Georgiana Raikes (died 2 December 1861) in 1816 and had two children.
• Lord John Edward FitzRoy (24 September 1785 – 28 December 1856), MP, died unmarried.
• Lady Charlotte FitzRoy (died 23 June 1857).
• Lady Elizabeth FitzRoy (died 13 March 1839), who married her cousin Lt. Gen. The Hon. William FitzRoy (1773–1837), son of the 1st Baron Southampton, on 4 July 1811.
• Lady Isabella FitzRoy (died 10 December 1866), who married Barrington Pope Blachford (3 December 1783 – 14 May 1816) on 11 August 1812.

Grafton is thus the first British prime minister before Anthony Eden^[16] (and one of only three) to have been divorced, and the second, after Robert Walpole, to marry while in office.^{[citation needed]} Grafton would be the only prime minister to divorce and remarry while in office until Boris Johnson in 2021.^[17] FitzRoy died on 14 March 1811.

Arms

Coat of arms of Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton

Crest On a Chapeau Gules doubled Ermine a Lion statant guardant Or crowned with a ducal-coronet Azure and gorged with a Collar countercompony Argent and of the Fourth Escutcheon Royal arms of King Charles II (differenced), viz: grandquarterly, 1st and 4th, France and England quarterly; 2nd, Scotland; 3rd, Ireland; the whole debruised by a Baton sinister compony of six pieces Argent and Azure Motto Et decus et pretium recti (By Grace, the prize of rectitude)

Cabinet of the Duke of Grafton