Rockingham

Rockingham, CHARLES WATSON WENTWORTH, MARQUIS OF, a statesman of importance beyond his abilities, was born in 1730, the only son of that Thomas Watson Wentworth who succeeded as sixth Lord Rockingham in 1746, and was created marquis the same year. He had his education at Eton, was created Earl of Malton in the Irish peerage in 1750, and succeeded his father as second Marquis of Rockingham in December of the same year. In 1751 he was nominated lord-lieutenant of the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, and in 1760 made Knight of the Garter, but soon found himself in opposition to the policy of the young king George III. and his favourite minister, Bute, and was dismissed from his lord-lieutenancy in 1762. He found himself leader of the combination of Whig opposition, after the Duke of Devonshire's death in 1764, and in July 1765 was called on to form his first ministry. He repealed the Stamp Act, and would have done more for progress but for the secret intrigues of the court, added to the defection of the Duke of Grafton and his own want of influence in parliament. Rockingham resigned in August 1766, and remained out of office sixteen years in opposition to Lord North and the ruinous policy that lost America. He again became premier in March 1782, with Fox and Shelburne as his secretaries, but died 1st July of the same year. See the Memoirs by the Earl of Albemarle (2 vols. 1852).