Genius Fan

Eighteenth Century British Prime Minister No.10

• William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham
  • Life: 15 November, 1708 – 11 May, 1778 (d. 69)
• Administration: 30 July, 1766 – 14 October, 1768
  • Age in office: 57-59 years old
  • Duration of administration: 2 yrs and 77 days
  • Political faction: Whig
  • Predecessor: Marquess of Rockingham
  • Successor: Duke of Grafton

‘PM on the Pan’ Take Aways

• Tenth British Prime Minister: He was hailed by the public as the ‘Great Commoner’ who opposed corruption. That took him a long way, but upon accepting the top post in 1766 he accepted a peerage, became Lord Chatham, and lost much of the gloss.
• Pitt first, Prime Minister second: Pitt was a force to be reckoned with in British politics, but mostly in opposition. Remember the Pitt-Newcastle Ministry (1757-1762) when he was leading the government from the Commons. He was the great war leader, taking Britain to victory in the Seven Years War (1756-1763). Pitt’s time had passed by the time he took office in 1766. He was noisy, but eloquent, and others were coming up the ranks. He was losing his cache. And on top of it all, he was really ill with gout.
• A ‘wonky’ administration: So what to say of his administration? Edmund Burke put it like this: “Pitt made an administration so chequered and speckled; he put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed; a Cabinet so variously inlaid; such a piece of diversified mosaic; such a tesselated pavement without cement – here a bit of black stone and there a bit of white, patriots and courtiers, King’s friends and republicans, Whigs and Tories, treacherous friends and open foes – that it was indeed a very curious show, but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure to stand on.”
• Gout: Like many aristocrats and politicians, Pitt suffered from gout, but he caught it school! As he got older his bouts of gout became more painful, more frequent and lasted longer. Gout incapacitated him for much of his time as Prime Minister.
• Notable for: He was a great war leader, he was a great orator in Parliament and father of the great Eighteenth century Prime Minister William Pit the Younger.
• How it ended: He resigned

Check out my PMs on the Pan series of posts

Here’s the full list of Eighteenth century British Prime Ministers. Note there were 16 administrations, but 14 Prime Ministers and that’s because two of them held office twice (Newcastle and Rockingham). Two others held office twice (Portland and Pitt the Younger), but their second terms were in the Nineteenth century. The text in bold highlights the name they’re commonly known by.

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 (I)
5. 1756-1757: William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire
6. 1757-1762: Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle (II)
7. 1762-1763: John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute
8. 1763-1765: George Grenville
9. 1765-1766: Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham (I)
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: Charles Watson-Wentworth, Marquess of Rockingham (II)
14. 1782-1783: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne
15. 1783: William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (I)
16. 1783-1801: William Pitt the Younger (I)

Sources for information about William Pitt the Elder

The Prime Ministers, Iain Dale (2020) (Walpole article by Mark Fox)
William Pitt the Elder episode of Iain Dale’s Presidents, Prime Ministers, Monarchs and Dictators podcast
UK Govt Past Prime Ministers: Pitt the Elder
British Prime Ministers of the 18th Century, FJC Hearnshaw (1928)
Wikipedia: William Pitt the Elder