George Townshend, 2nd Marquess Townshend

George Townshend, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, painted by Joshua Reynolds

George Townshend, 2nd Marquess Townshend , PC , FRS ( April 18, 1755 - July 27, 1811 ) was a British nobleman and politician .

Family and education

He was the eldest son of George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend and his first wife, Charlotte Townshend, 15th Baroness Ferrers of Chartley. He was the older brother of Lord John Townshend and Lord Charles Townshend . George Townshend he inherited his mother when she died in 1770 as 17th Baron Ferrers of Chartley and 8th Baron Compton .

Townshend studied at Eton College and St John's College at Cambridge University . For several years he served in a dragoon regiment of the British Army and passed through the ranks of Cornet and Lieutenant until he was promoted to captain in 1774 .

Political career

After he reached the age of majority, he was first convened in 1774 by Writ of Summons in the House of Lords . In March 1782 he was made captain of the Honorable Corps of Pensioners , a post he held until May 1783 and again from 1783 to 1797. In April 1782 he was admitted to the Privy Council and also served as a member of the Trade Committee from 1784 to 1786. On May 18, 1784 he was appointed by King George III. elevated to the Earl of Leicester . He himself had chosen to name the title because on his mother's side he was a great-great-great-grandson of Lady Lucy Sidney, a daughter of Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester , whose title had expired in 1743.

Under William Pitt and Henry Addington , George Townshend was Master of the Mint from 1790 to 1794 , a high office in the Royal Mint , the mint of the United Kingdom, from 1794 to 1799 he was Postmaster General and from 1799 to 1802 Lord Steward of the Household . In 1807 he inherited the title of Marquess Townshend from his father .

In addition to his political duties, Townshend was very interested in archeology and was President of the Society of Antiquaries of London . He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society and served on the board of the British Museum .

Charlotte, wife of George Townshend, (painted by Richard Cosway )

family

In 1777 he married Charlotte Mainwaring-Ellerker (1755-1802), daughter of Eaton Mainwaring-Ellerker, lord of Risby Park in Yorkshire . The couple had two sons, George and Charles , both of whom died childless, and three daughters. Charlotte Townshend died in 1802, her husband nine years later. His son George Townshend inherited his father's titles, although he had previously been disinherited by him. At his death in 1855, the title of Earl of Leicester expired, the Marquessate went to his cousin John Townshend, 4th Marquess Townshend .

Web links

• Mr George Townshend at Hansard (English)
• George Townshend, 2nd Marquess Townshend of Raynham on thepeerage.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Gerald le Grys Norgate: Townshend, George (1755-1811). In: Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 57, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1899, pp. 86 f. ( Wikisource ).
2. ↑ Ferrars, Lord George . In: John Archibald Venn (Ed.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 2: From 1752 to 1900 , Volume 2 : Chalmers – Fytche . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1944, pp. 486 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 12290, HMSO, London, April 23, 1782, p. 1 ( PDF , accessed October 18, 2013, English).
4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 12541, HMSO, London, May 8, 1784, p. 1 ( PDF , accessed April 11, 2019, English).

predecessor	Office	successor
George Townshend	Marquess Townshend 1807-1811	George Townshend
New title created	Earl of Leicester 1784-1811	George Townshend
Charlotte Townshend	Baron Ferrers of Chartley Baron Compton 1770-1811	George Townshend
Philip Stanhope	Master of the Mint 1790-1794	George Yonge
John Sackville	Lord Steward of the Household 1799-1802	George Legge