Sidmouth, HENRY ADDINGTON, VISCOUNT

Sidmouth, HENRY ADDINGTON, VISCOUNT, prime-minister, was born in London, 30th May 1757, the son of Lord Chatham's physician, Dr Anthony Addington (1713-90). After twelve years at Cheam and Winchester schools, and four at Brasenose College, Oxford (1774-78), he studied law at Lincoln's Inn, married (1781), and was led by his friendship with Pitt to quit the bar for politics, in 1783 being elected M.P. for Devizes. He made an admirable Speaker from 1789 till 1801, when, upon Pitt's resignation on the Catholic relief question, he was invited by the king and urged by Pitt to form a ministry. That most third-rate administration, in which Addington was First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and whose one great event was the short-lived peace of Amiens (1802), came to an end in 1804. In the following January Addington was created Viscount Sidmouth; and thereafter he was thrice President of the Council, once Lord Privy-seal; and from 1812 to 1821 Home Secretary, as such being thoroughly unpopular for his coercive measures. He retired from the cabinet in 1824, and died 15th February 1844. He was a very sincere Tory. See his Life and Correspondence by his son-in-law, Dean Pellew (3 vols. 1847).