English politician and peer (1684?1764)
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath
,
PC
(22 March 1684 – 7 July 1764) was an English
Whig
politician and peer who sat in the
British House of Commons
from 1707 to 1742 when he was raised to the
peerage
as the
Earl of Bath
by
George II of Great Britain
. He is sometimes represented as having served as
First Lord of the Treasury
and
Prime Minister of Great Britain
as part of the
short-lived ministry
in 1746, although most modern sources do not consider him to have held the office.
Background and early career
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The son of William Pulteney by his first wife, Mary Floyd, he was born in March 1684 into an old
Leicestershire
family. He was educated at
Westminster School
and at
Christ Church, Oxford
, matriculating on 31 October 1700. He acquired extensive classical knowledge, and on leaving
Oxford
made the usual tour on the continent. In 1705, he was brought into parliament by
Henry Guy
(former secretary of the
Treasury
) for the Yorkshire borough of
Hedon
. This seat was held by him without a break until 1734.
[2]
Throughout the reign of Queen
Anne
William Pulteney played a prominent part in the struggles of the
Whigs
, and was involved in the prosecution of
Henry Sacheverell
. When the victorious Tories sent his friend
Robert Walpole
to the
Tower of London
in 1712, Pulteney championed his cause in the House of Commons and with the leading Whigs visited him in prison.
Ministerial offices
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Pulteney was secretary of war from 1714 to 1717 in the first ministry of
George I
, and was on the committee of secrecy on the
Treaty of Utrecht
, formed in April 1715. Two years later, on 6 July 1716, he became one of the
privy council
. When
Townshend
was dismissed, in April 1717, from his post of
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
, and Walpole resigned, they were followed in their retirement by Pulteney.
The crash of the
South Sea Company
restored Walpole to the highest position, but all he offered to Pulteney was a peerage. Pulteney rejected the offer, but in May 1723 Pulteney agreed to accept the lucrative but insignificant post of
Cofferer of the Household
. However, when he found himself neglected, he opposed the proposition of Walpole to discharge the debts of the
civil list
, and in April 1725 was dismissed from his
sinecure
.
He was one of the original backers of the
Royal Academy of Music
, establishing a London opera company which commissioned numerous works from
Handel
,
Bononcini
and others.
[4]
Patriot Whigs
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From the day of his dismissal to that of his ultimate triumph, Pulteney remained in opposition, forming the
Patriot Whigs
, a group of fellow Whigs who felt that Walpole was corrupt and tyrannical. Walpole's attempt's 1730 at conciliation with the offer of Townshend's place and of a peerage was spurned. Pulteney's resentment was not confined to his speeches in parliament.
With
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
he started, in December 1726, a periodical called
The Craftsman
, and in its pages the minister was incessantly denounced for many years. Lord Hervey published an attack on the
Craftsman
, and Pulteney, either openly or behind the person of Amhurst, its editor, replied to the attack. Whether the question at issue was the civil list, the excise, the income of the
Prince of Wales
, or the state of domestic affairs, Pulteney was ready with a pamphlet, and the minister or one of his friends came out with a reply.
For his "Proper reply to a late scurrilous libel" (
Craftsman
, 1731), an answer to "Sedition and defamation displayed," he was challenged to a duel by Lord Hervey; for another, "An answer to one part of an infamous libel entitled remarks on the Craftsman's indication of his two honourable patrons," he was in July 1731 struck off the roll of privy councillors and dismissed from the commission of the peace in several counties.
In print, Pulteney was inferior to
Bolingbroke
alone among the antagonists of Walpole, but in parliament, from which Bolingbroke was excluded, he excelled. When the
sinking fund
was appropriated in 1733 he led the denunciation; when the
excise scheme
in the same year was stirring popular feeling to its lowest depths the passion of the multitude broke out in his oratory. Walpole managed to avoid the fall of his ministry. Bolingbroke withdrew to France on the suggestion, it is said, of Pulteney, and the opposition was weakened by the dissensions of the leaders.
From the general election of 1734 until his elevation to the peerage, Pulteney sat for
Middlesex
.
[2]
For some years after this election the minister's assailants made little progress in their attack, but in 1738 the troubles with Spain supplied them with the opportunity which they desired. Walpole long argued for peace, but he was feebly supported by his own cabinet, and the frenzy of the people for war knew no bounds. In an evil moment for his own reputation he consented to remain in office and to gratify popular passion with a war against Spain. His downfall was not long deferred. War was declared in 1739, a new parliament was summoned in the summer of 1741, and over the divisions on the election petitions the ministry of Walpole collapsed.
The task of forming the new administration was after some delay entrusted to Pulteney, who offered the post of
First Lord of the Treasury
(Prime Minister) to the
Earl of Wilmington
, and contented himself with a seat in the cabinet and a peerage, still hoping to retain his supremacy in the ministry. This made him unpopular, and his influence dwindled to nothing.
Horace Walpole
asserts that when Pulteney wished to withdraw from the peerage it was forced upon him by the king, and another chronicler of the times records that when Walpole and Pulteney met in the
House of Lords
, the one as
Earl of Orford
, the other as Earl of Bath, the remark was made by Orford: "Here we are, my lord, the two most insignificant fellows in England." On 14 July 1742 Pulteney was created
Baron Pulteney
of Heydon,
Viscount Pulteney
of Wrington,
Somerset
, and
Earl of Bath
. On 20 February he had been restored to his rank in the privy council. At Wilmington's death in 1743 he made application to
the king
for the post of First Lord of the Treasury, only to find that it had been conferred on
Henry Pelham
.
Prime minister
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On 10 February 1746, Pelham's administration resigned
en masse
, and the king turned to Bath to form an alternative ministry. He accepted the seals of office and made
nominations
to the most senior posts, but it quickly became clear that he did not have enough support to form a viable government, and after "48 hours, three quarters, seven minutes, and eleven seconds" he abandoned the attempt, forcing the king to accept Pelham's terms for resuming office. As the office of Prime Minister did not then officially exist, it is a matter of controversy whether Bath should be considered to have been Prime Minister by virtue of his two-day ministry.
Bath's failed attempt to form a government brought him much ridicule.
Horace Walpole
recorded the joke that "
Granville
and Bath were met going about the streets, calling 'Odd Man', as the hackney chairmen do when they want a partner",
[5]
and a contemporary pamphlet satirically praised him for "the most wise and honest of all administrations, the minister having ... never transacted one rash thing; and, what is more marvellous, left as much money in the T[reasur]y as he found in it."
Death and legacy
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An occasional pamphlet and an infrequent speech were afterwards the sole fruits of Bath's talents. His praises whilst in retirement have been sung by two bishops,
Zachary Pearce
and
Thomas Newton
.
In 1762, two years before his death, he served as treasurer of the
Salop Infirmary
in
Shrewsbury
.
[6]
He was buried on 17 July 1764, in his own vault in Islip chapel,
Westminster Abbey
. The monument is by the sculptor
Joseph Wilton
.
He married on 27 December 1714 Anna Maria, daughter and co-heiress of
John Gumley
of
Isleworth
, commissary general to the army who was often satirized by the wits of the day (
Notes and Queries
, 3rd S. iI. 40 2-403, ~ 490). Anna Maria was the aunt of
Rev. Dr. John Lockman, Canon of Windsor
. She died on 14 September 1758, and their only son
William Pulteney
died unmarried at Madrid on 12 February 1763. Pulteney's vast fortune passed in 1767 to Frances, wife of
William Johnstone
and daughter and co-heiress of his cousin,
Daniel Pulteney
, a bitter antagonist of Walpole in parliament, and had taken the name of Pulteney.
Of business he was never fond, and the loss in 1734 of his trusted friend John Merrill, who had supplied the qualities which he lacked, was lamented by him in a letter to
Jonathan Swift
.
The town of
Poultney, Vermont
and the Poultney River were named for him.
[7]
Cabinet of Lord Bath
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Portfolio
|
Minister
|
Took office
|
Left office
|
First Lord of the Treasury
| *
| 10 February 1746
(
1746-02-10
)
| 12 February 1746
(
1746-02-12
)
|
Lord Privy Seal
| | 10 February 1746
(
1746-02-10
)
| 12 February 1746
(
1746-02-12
)
|
First Lord of the Admiralty
| | 10 February 1746
(
1746-02-10
)
| 12 February 1746
(
1746-02-12
)
|
| *
| 10 February 1746
(
1746-02-10
)
| 12 February 1746
(
1746-02-12
)
|
Bibliography
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References
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Attribution:
Bibliography
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