Henry Pelham

English politician

• Born: September 24, 1694
• Birthplace: Laughton, Sussex, England
• Died: March 6, 1754
• Place of death: London, England

Pelham helped forge the British parliamentary system of government into one in which the cabinet is answerable to the House of Commons and not to the monarch.

Early Life

Henry Pelham was the younger son of Thomas, First Baron Pelham, and Lady Grace Holles, the youngest daughter of Gilbert, earl of Clare, and sister of John Holles, duke of Newcastle. Pelham attended Westminster School and in 1710 matriculated at Hart Hill, Oxford (from which he was never graduated). In 1715, he was commissioned a captain in the army and fought with distinction at Preston (November, 1715), where a minor rebellion was crushed.

Following the suppression of the rebellion, Pelham toured the Continent. While touring, he learned of his election to Parliament. He had been returned for Seaford at a by-election in February, 1717. Once in Parliament, he immediately became a supporter of the Whig Party, then led by Robert Walpole and Charles, Lord Townshend. (Pelham was related to both through marriage.) He rose rapidly in Parliament. In 1720, he was appointed treasurer for the House of Commons and on April 3, 1721, became one of the lords of the treasury. In 1722, Pelham was returned to the House of Commons for Sussex. He would represent Sussex for the remainder of his tenure in the Commons. (In 1734, both Aldborough and Sussex elected him; he chose to represent Sussex.) On April 1, 1724, he was appointed secretary at war and was therefore required to resign as a lord of the treasury. In June, 1725, he was sworn as a member of the Privy Council. There his talents as a mediator and peacemaker were identified and put to good use. He was frequently needed to still the troubled waters between Walpole and his brother, Sir Thomas Pelham-Holles, duke of Newcastle. These two men manifested a mutual jealousy which flared into frequent, if petty, disputes.

In 1730, Pelham was promoted to the very lucrative position of Paymaster of the Forces. Shortly thereafter, Pelham became involved in a disagreement with William Pulteney, earl of Bath. So serious was this dispute that a duel was requested. Only the intervention of the speaker of the House prevented it from occurring. This conflict with Pulteney would continue to be a cause of friction affecting the careers of both men for the next twenty years. On one other occasion, Pelham had a dispute that would affect his career. He intervened to prevent a mob from physically attacking Walpole on the steps of the House of Commons. From then until Walpole’s fall from power in February, 1742, Pelham served with distinction, if not great notice, near the center of power in England.

Pelham’s brother, Thomas, assigned him half of his property. To this, Pelham added some major holdings. He purchased Esher Place in Surrey, which he greatly improved. (Alexander Pope makes reference to Esher in his Epilogue to the Satires, 1738.)

Pelham married Lady Katherine Manners, the eldest daughter of John, duke of Rutland, by whom he had two sons and six daughters. Both of the sons died in 1739 of ulcerated sore throats, a condition that came to be called Pelham’s Fever. Four of his daughters survived infancy. Catherine, who was born July 24, 1727, married Henry Fynes Clinton, earl of Lincoln and later duke of Newcastle. Pelham’s second daughter, Frances (born August 18, 1728), and Mary, his fourth (born in September, 1739), never married. Grace (born in January of 1735) married Lewis Watson, Baron Sondes.

Life’s Work

The collapse of Walpole’s government in February, 1742, following the loss of back-bench support in the Commons over the conduct of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), was the turning point in Pelham’s career. At that time, the Commons was divided into several groups, the Old Corps Whigs and the New Whigs being the two major divisions. The Tories were another, though lesser, group. A power struggle developed. The Old Corps Whigs, who had supported Walpole, did not automatically lose position with the collapse. In the new administration, several members of the opposition had to be included, John, Lord Carteret (later the earl of Granville), and Pulteney being the two most important. King George II preferred the New Whigs and the Tories and used his influence in an attempt to prevent Pelham from assuming a major position in the newly reorganized government. In the restructured cabinet, Spencer Compton, earl of Wilmington, became the first lord of the treasury, the position desired by Pelham. Though Compton then offered him the chancellorship of the exchequer, Pelham refused it, choosing to remain as paymaster. (In April, 1743, Pelham was appointed a lord justice of Great Britain.)

The sudden death of the earl of Wilmington forced major cabinet changes. In spite of the opposition of Carteret, and perhaps because of the continuing influence of Walpole, Pelham stepped closer to the center of power. He became the first lord of the treasury and the chancellor of the exchequer in August, 1743. In this position, as the leader of the government, Pelham was a force between the supporters of the king, who lavished aid upon Great Britain’s continental allies during the War of the Austrian Succession, and the Old Corps Whigs, who dominated in the House of Commons and favored an end to the hostilities in Europe. Old Corps Whigs preferred to see taxes kept down. Pelham favored an early end to the war, but neither he nor his brother was able to challenge the power of the New Whigs, who curried favor with George II by supporting Hanover and the continental alliances. That support and those alliances required substantial monetary outlays from the treasury.

In some interesting parliamentary maneuverings, in which William Pitt the Elder played a major role, Carteret and several of the New Whigs were ousted. The issue on which the crisis turned involved new taxes on imported sugars and upon a memorial from Pelham and the cabinet addressed to the king. The memorial urged that efforts be launched immediately to bring about a general pacification. Pelham proceeded to reorganize the government. The new cabinet was termed the “Broad Bottom” cabinet as it was an effort to balance the power among the Tories, the Old Corps Whigs, the New Whigs, and the backbenchers supporting the rising power of Pitt.

The Broad Bottom cabinet gave Pelham, who was at least nominally prime minister, the ability to meet several immediate goals. First, a closer alliance with the Dutch on the Continent was achieved and second, George II (elector of Hanover as well as king of Great Britain) was forced to join the war not only as a supporter of Hanover but also as a principal. Assisting Pelham at this particular stage in history was a Jacobite Rebellion, the Forty-five, which lasted from June of 1745 until September of 1746. While his policies in the handling of that rebellion have very little to commend themselves, they strengthened Pelham’s power base in the House of Commons, although they cost him the support of his monarch. George II labeled the cabinet members “pitifull fellows” and called for their resignations. George proposed to recall both Carteret and Pulteney to power.

George’s decision led to a major confrontation, which has had a lasting impact on British parliamentary government. Pelham, on learning of the king’s plan, which he considered intolerable interference by the monarch, immediately resigned (on February 11, 1746) all of his offices. Subsequently, the cabinet collapsed as mass resignations (forty-five in number) followed. King George discovered that he had virtually no support in the Commons. Neither Carteret nor Pulteney could organize a government. As a result, George recalled Pelham on February 14 and asked him to form an administration.

In the new cabinet, Pelham found a place for Pitt (as joint vice treasurer for Ireland). From this crisis until his death, Pelham maintained political peace—even more disciplined than that achieved by Walpole. Examples of his exercise of control include permitting publication of the debates in both the Lords and the Commons and accepting a French proposal for peace that eventually led to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). Pelham had forced peace in spite of the king’s opposition. Pelham argued, in defense of that treaty, that while it did not bring Great Britain great advantage, it was much more satisfactory than continuing an unsuccessful war (Austrian Succession).

During the period of peace that followed the war and that endured until his death in 1754, Pelham pursued policies that resulted in a reduction of national expenditures and in a rearrangement of governmental finances. In 1749, he implemented an extensive plan to reduce the interest rates on the national debt. (This action led to a violent, if temporary, break with his brother, the duke of Newcastle.) In 1751, he sponsored the Chesterfield Act to reform the calendar by adopting the new, or Gregorian, style that Europe had been using since 1582. The Chesterfield Act set January 1, 1752, as the beginning of the new year instead of March 25, 1752, and provided that the eleven days between the second and fourteenth of September would be omitted. Pelham also supported the measure to maintain, in certain situations, a standing army. He supported the law that allowed for naturalization of foreign-born Protestants. He supported, but later endorsed repeal of, a law to naturalize Jews. So loud was the public outcry against this latter law that the government backed down and revoked the Jewish Naturalization Bill. Other legislative achievements of Pelham’s administration include a law (Gin Act of 1751) to supervise more closely the distillation and sale of alcohol; a law to permit local magistrates greater authority in the suppression of crime and vice; and a law to prevent the clandestine marriages of young females (the Hardewick Marriage Act, 1753) by providing for greater governmental supervision.

Pelham died on March 6, 1754, from an attack of erysipelas believed to have been caused by immoderate eating and failure to engage in proper exercise.

Significance

Henry Pelham was a peace-loving man with neither outstanding abilities nor much strength of character. He has been described as a “good man of business” and as an able and economical financier. He had a temper, was an able debater, and possessed much common sense. He was in a position of power in England at the time when control of the ministers of government passed from the monarch to the House of Commons.

Scholars disagree as to whether Pelham’s role was that of a catalyst or of a beneficiary of changes outside his control. Some historians argue that the events of 1744-1746 are less similar to the workings of a modern cabinet than they appear to be. Those historians argue that Pelham did not come to the king as the leader of a majority in the Commons and demand changes. Rather, they argue, Pelham emerges as the compromise choice between those in the Commons who rejected Carteret and Pulteney (or any suggestion of the king) and the king, who detested Pelham less than he detested other opposition leaders. In any event, the foundations for the modern cabinet system were laid at this time and Pelham played the leading role in those developments.

Bibliography

Black, Jeremy, ed. British Politics and Society from Walpole to Pitt, 1742-1789. Basingstoke, Hampshire, England: Macmillan, 1990. Collection of essays about eighteenth century Britain, including one on the changing nature of parliamentary politics.

Gipson, Lawrence Henry. The British Isles and the American Colonies: Great Britain and Ireland, 1748-1754. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958. Deals with the years of relative international peace while Pelham served as prime minister. The chapter “Under the Shadow of the Pelhams” deserves careful attention by those wishing to judge Pelham’s use of power.

Kulisheck, P. J. The Duke of Newcastle, 1693-1768, and Henry Pelham, 1694-1754: A Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997. Comprehensive list of material about the Pelham brothers, including personal papers, manuscript collections, memoirs, dairies, articles, and books.

Owen, John B. The Rise of the Pelhams. London: Methuen, 1957. Rev. ed. New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1971. Contains detailed information on the long political careers of Henry and Thomas Pelham. Owen’s work is among the best sources for understanding Pelham’s private life and his family history.

Plumb, J. H. The First Four Georges. London: B. T. Batsford, 1956. A colorful account of the Hanoverians, containing much political detail. Pelham’s role in the crises of 1744 and 1746 is seen from the perspective of the monarch and receives special attention.

Williams, Basil. The Whig Supremacy, 1714-1760. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1936. A major source dealing with the entire Whig Party and detailing the role of Henry and Thomas Pelham. The years in which Henry served as the first minister to the king are given careful examination.

Willson, David Harris. A History of England. Hinsdale, Ill.: Dryden Press, 1972. One of the many standard histories of England. Willson offers a balanced account of the developments of the office of the modern prime minister.