Carteret, JOHN, EARL GRANVILLE, one of the most eminent British orators, diplomatists, and statesmen of the 18th century, was born April 22, 1690, his father, who died when he was five years old, being Baron Carteret of Hawnes, Bedfordshire. He received his education at Westminster School and Christ Church College, Oxford. From Oxford he proceeded to London, plunged into the political and social excitements of the period, made the acquaintance of Swift, and in 1710 married Lady Frances Worsley. Entering the House of Lords on May 25, 1711, as second Baron Carteret, he espoused the side of the Whigs, then led by Stanhope and Sunderland, and in 1714 made his first speech in the House of Lords in support of the Protestant Succession. On the accession of George I., the Whigs came into power, and Carteret became a Lord of the Bedchamber. In 1719 he was appointed by Stanhope ambassador extraordinary to Sweden, and succeeded in arranging two treaties of peace, the first between Sweden, Hanover, and Prussia, and the second between Denmark and Sweden. In 1721 he was appointed to one of the two foreign secretaryships, that for the 'Southern Department' of Europe, and as such, attended in 1723 the congress of Cambrai which attempted the settlement of differences between Germany and Spain, and accompanied George I. to Berlin. In 1724 Carteret was appointed Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. His administration, which lasted, with an interruption, till 1730, was decidedly successful, for, although one of his first acts was to order the prosecution of the author, printer, and publisher of Drapier's Letters, it was on his recommendation that Wood's coinage was abandoned in 1725. Although he came into collision with Swift over the Drapier prosecution, the two became warm friends before Carteret left Ireland. Between 1730 and 1742 Carteret took the lead in the House of Lords of the party opposed to Sir Robert Walpole. When this opposition succeeded in overthrowing Walpole, Carteret became the real head of the administration which succeeded his, although nominally only Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Carteret held this position till 1744. His foreign policy, it is now generally admitted, was essentially a wise one, its main object being the bringing about of an understanding between Maria Theresa, Frederick the Great, and the Emperor of Germany, and the detachment of the last from his alliance with France. But he had no time to develop it, being driven from power by the Pelhams in 1744, about a month after he became Earl Granville on the death of his mother, who had been created Countess Granville in her own right. In 1751 Carteret consented to become Lord President of the Council under Henry Pelham. But although he held this office till his death, and twice refused the premiership, he was no longer a very pronounced force in British politics, acting chiefly as a medium of communication between his sovereign and the leading politicians of the time. He was, however, instrumental in bringing the elder Pitt into office, and greatly admired his powers. Carteret died at his house in London, January 2, 1763. He was twice married. His first wife died in 1743. In 1744 he married the leading beauty of the day, Lady Sophia Fermor, who, however, died the following year. Carteret, who is described by Horace Walpole and Lord Shelburne as of 'commanding beauty,' was one of the first orators, purest patriots, keenest wits, brightest classical scholars, and most ardent convivialists of his time.
The chief authorities on the life of Carteret are Lord Carteret, a Political Biography, by Archibald Ballantyne (London, 1887), and the Carteret Papers in the British Museum. Carlyle's Frederick the Great, Sheridan's and Craik's Lives of Swift, Horace Walpole's Correspondence, Graham's Annals and Correspondence of the Earls of Stair, The Marchmont Papers, and Lord E. Fitzmaurice's Life of Shelburne, may also be consulted.