Genius Fan

Today, Genius Fan kicks off the PMs on the Pan series, looking at those politicians who led the government of Eighteenth century Britain: the Prime Ministers. See them, one by one, sitting on the toilet every Monday starting 5 January, 2026.

But why put them on the pan (for ‘pan’ read toilet) – so cruel? Cruel maybe, but us Brits have a long tradition of satirising leaders, criticising them with humour and ridicule. But listen to this: the Eighteenth century was a golden age for the use of toilet, bottom, poop, pee and fart-related satire. Cough. These attacks appeared in broadsheets, a single sheet of printed paper, bought from vendors on the street and available at coffee shops. Also, prints made from engravings were sold in print shops or could even be rented!

The target of this lavatorial mockery was royalty, aristocracy and politicians. Especially Prime Ministers. Today our prime minister, the 58th, is Keir Starmer, but who was the first? When was the title first used? In the 1700s there was no role of Prime Minister. Actually, it was a term of abuse to call a minister ‘Prime Minister’! According to the UK Government’s history blog: “It implied that an individual subject had risen improperly above others within the royal circle, and had echoes of a political institution imported from France, England’s great enemy.” 

It’s generally agreed the first Prime Minister was Robert Walpole (1676-1745) whose administration ran from 1721 to 1742. As the power balance continued to shift from crown to parliament following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 it was inevitable a single person would become more prominent than the others since the monarch needed his representative in the Commons. On 3 April 1721, King George I announced Robert Walpole as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Note, the king did not call him Prime Minister. Walpole and successors for decades after him refused to call themselves Prime Minister. It was a century and a half later, in 1878, before Benjamin Disraeli signed himself Prime Minister for the Treaty of Berlin.

Now, a couple of paragraphs about toilet-ing in the Eighteenth century… This was the age of genius, enlightenment and reason, but most definitely not the age of the toilet. Our Eighteenth century predecessors used an outdoor privy, like a little shed containing a hole in the ground or a bench with a hole on which to sit and poop through into a pit below. This pit would be emptied or the whole privy could be moved to a new spot and the used pit filled in. There would also have been chamber pots in the house for use at night, for example. They would be emptied into the privy. You’re getting the picture here: doing your business in the Eighteenth century would have been an eye-opening process for those of us living in Twenty First century Britain.

For the wealthy, the process would still have been…coarse. They probably had an indoors privy – a small closet, containing a ‘close stool’, a portable seat with a hole to poop through into a pot underneath. Think of it like a commode. There was no flushing water to take away the waste – that was the job of the servant; no U-bend to trap odours – that was the job of a lid, a cloth or lavender, none of which were at all effective; no toilet tissue paper – that was the job of linen at best or vegetation such as moss and grass; and no radio to play to cover any noises we might make – that was the job of people in the vicinity to ignore and roll their eyes.

So, Genius Fan is putting these characters under the spotlight, while they’re on the pan, starting with Walpole and ending with Pitt the Younger. Below is the list of British Prime Ministers of the Eighteenth century.

1. 1721-1742: Sir Robert Walpole
2. 1742-1743: Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington
3. 1743-1754: Henry Pelham
4. 1754-1756: Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle
5. 1756-1757: William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire
6. 1757-1762: Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle
7. 1762-1763: John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
8. 1763-1765: George Grenville
9. 1765-1766: Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham
10. 1766-1768: William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham
11. 1768-1770: Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton
12. 1770-1782: Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford (Lord North)
13. 1782-1783: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne
14. 1783: William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland
15. 1783-1801: William Pitt the Younger

Notes
The Prime Ministers, Iain Dale (2020) (Walpole article by Mark Fox)
The Impossible Office, Anthony Seldon (2021)
UK Government history blog (the Institution of Government)
UK National Portrait Gallery (example of lavatorial satire of King George III)