William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam

The Earl Fitzwilliam  PC
Portrait of Fitzwilliam in 1817.
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
In office 13 December 1794 – 13 March 1795
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	Hon. William Pitt the Younger
Preceded by	The Earl of Westmorland
Succeeded by	The Earl Camden
Born	30 May 1748 (1748-05-30)
Died	8 February 1833 (1833-02-09)
Nationality	British
Political party	Whig
Spouse(s)	(1) Lady Charlotte Ponsonby (c. 1750-1822) (2) Hon. Louisa Molesworth (1749-1824)

William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam PC (30 May 1748 – 8 February 1833), styled Viscount Milton until 1756, was a British Whig statesman of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Background and education

Fitzwilliam was the son of William Fitzwilliam, 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam, by his wife Lady Anne, daughter of Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham. Prime Minister Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham was his maternal uncle. He inherited the two earldoms of Fitzwilliam (in the Peerages of Great Britain and of Ireland) at the age of eight on the death of his father. He was educated at Eton, where he became friends with Charles James Fox and Lord Morpeth. On his uncle Lord Rockingham's death in 1782 he inherited his substantial estates, making him one of the greatest landowners in the country.

Political career

Fitzwilliam also took up his uncle's role as a major leader of the Whigs. In the Lords, Fitzwilliam was one of the leading supporters of the Fox-North coalition government, being considerably more effective than the nominal leader of the Government, the Duke of Portland. Fitzwilliam was to have become head of the India Board under the Ministry's ill-fated India Bill, but the failure of the Bill led to the fall of the Ministry, and Fitzwilliam found himself in opposition.

Fitzwilliam as painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1786.

After the fall of the coalition, Fitzwilliam became one of the leading opposition figures in the House of Lords, and generally played the role of a Whig grandee. A fairly conservative Whig, Fitzwilliam was horrified by the excesses of the French Revolution, but also concerned to maintain party unity and his own friendship with Fox. Fitzwilliam nevertheless supported the war against the French, and agreed with the decision of Portland, the leader of the anti-Foxite Whigs, to break with Fox and his supporters and support Pitt. Nevertheless, Fitzwilliam was reluctant for the Portland group actually to join the government, although he ultimately joined on as Lord President in July 1794. Shortly thereafter, he was made also Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Once in Ireland in January 1795, Fitzwilliam caused controversy in the Cabinet by support of Catholic emancipation. He dismissed members of the Irish administration, most notably the powerful opponent of emancipation John Beresford, providing patronage to Irish Whigs and supporting an attempt by Henry Grattan to push through the emancipation Bill. Towards the end of February, Portland wrote to him requesting his return from Ireland.

Fitzwilliam as painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1827.

After his dismissal, Fitzwilliam, for which he blamed Portland, returned to opposition and eventually reconciled with Fox. In the Ministry of All the Talents of 1806 to 1807, Fitzwilliam was once again Lord President, and then Minister without Portfolio, and he continued as a leading Whig in opposition, although he became gradually less politically involved, and did not join the government when the Whigs finally returned to power in 1830. The new Whig premier, Lord Grey, requested that Fitzwilliam come up to Westminster to vote for the Reform Bill in 1831. Fitzwilliam's son, Lord Milton, said this would be "really out of the question":

His old opinions about parliamentary reform seem still to cling to him—the only decided observation he ever made when the Bill was first explained to him and he said, ‘Well this is a new constitution’ and though he is of course very anxious for the success of your administration I am not at all clear that he is equally anxious for the measure upon which that success depends. The truth is that he never yielded at all upon the question till my own opinions had become very strong and perfectly unchangeable, and, even then, it was with the greatest difficulty that he could be reconciled to my supporting the question.^[1]

Family

Lord Fitzwilliam married firstly Lady Charlotte, daughter of William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough, in 1770. After her death in 1822 he married secondly the Hon. Louisa, daughter of Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth and widow of William Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby, in 1823. She died already in February 1824, aged 74. Lord Fitzwilliam died in February 1833, aged 84, and was succeeded by his son from his first marriage, Charles.

Notes

References

• www.thepeerage.com