Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, KG PC, styled The Hon.
Charles Watson-Wentworth before 1733, Viscount Higham between 1733 and 1746,
Earl of Malton between 1746 and 1750 and The Marquess of Rockingham in 1750, was
a British Whig statesman, most notable for his two terms as Prime Minister of
Great Britain. He became the patron of many Whigs, known as the Rockingham
Whigs, and served as a leading Whig grandee. He served in only two high
offices during his lifetime, but was nonetheless very influential during his
one and a half years of service. Early life: 1730–1751
A descendant of the 1st Earl of Strafford, Lord Rockingham was brought
up at the family home of Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham in South
Yorkshire. He was educated at the Westminster School. During the Jacobite
rising of 1745 Rockingham's father made him a colonel and organised volunteers
to defend the country against the "Young Pretender". Rockingham's sister Mary
wrote to him from London, saying the King "did not doubt but that you was as
good a colonel as he has in his army" and his other sister Charlotte wrote
that "you have gained immortal honour and I have every day the satisfaction of
hearing twenty handsome things said of the Blues and their Collonel". The march
of the Jacobite army into northern England caused the Wentworth household
to flee to Doncaster and Rockingham rode from Wentworth to Carlisle to join the
Duke of Cumberland in pursuit of the "Young Pretender". Rockingham did this
without parental consent and Cumberland wrote to Rockingham's father, saying
that his "zeal on this occasion shows the same principles fix't that you
yourself have given such strong proofs of". Rockingham wrote to his father that
Cumberland "blamed me for my disobedience, yet as I came with a
design of saving my King and country...it greatly palliated my
offence". Rockingham's mother wrote to his father: "Though I hope you won't
tell it him, never any thing met with such general applause, in short he is
the hero of these times, and his Majesty talks of this young Subject, in such
terms, as must please you to hear...in the Drawing Room no two people talk
together, but he makes part of the discourse".
In April 1746 Rockingham's father was made a marquis and Rockingham himself
assumed the courtesy title of Earl of Malton. These honours came about due to
the patronage of Henry Pelham. At this time Rockingham was travelling across
Europe under the tutorship of George Quarme, as his father had decided
against sending him to Cambridge. During his stay in Rome Rockingham noted that
amongst Englishmen Whigs outnumbered Jacobites four-to-one and there were "no
Persons of rank about the Pretender" and that "the vile spirit of Jacobitism" was
greatly declining. When in Herrenhausen, Hanover Rockingham met George II and
made an impression: the King told Rockingham's uncle Henry Finch that he
had never seen a finer or a more promising youth. In September 1750, two
months before his father's death, he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland in his
own right as Baron Malton and Earl Malton.
Early political career: 1751–65 On 13 May 1751, Rockingham inherited his
father's estates. The rents from the land in Yorkshire, Northamptonshire and
Ireland gave him an annual income of £20,000. He also controlled both of the
borough parliamentary seats of Malton and one seat for the single-member
borough of Higham Ferrers, along with twenty-three livings and five
chaplaincies in the church. In July he was appointed Lord Lieutenant and custos
rotulorum of the West Riding in Yorkshire, Lord Lieutenant of York city,
and custos rotulorum of York city and county. In 1751–52 Rockingham joined
White's, the Jockey Club and the Royal Society.
Rockingham's maiden speech was on 17 March 1752 in support of the Bill which
disposed of Scottish lands confiscated in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising
of 1745. He wanted the lands cultivated by people "employed in husbandry &
handicrafts" who repudiated "plunder, rapine & rebellion". He said "the
highlanders have remained in their ancient state, prolific, bold, idle, &
consequently hives of rebellion". He compared his favoured policy with the
policy which his ancestor Lord Strafford had used in Ireland. Rockingham's speech
was not well received, with Horace Walpole criticising him for venturing
into "a debate so much above his force". Rockingham's uncle William Murray, the
Solicitor-General, believed him to be poorly educated so he employed Quarme as
Rockingham's tutor again. Rockingham was for four months to study Demosthenes for
oratory, to learn the histories of the Assyrian, Persian, Greek and Roman
empires along with modern history. Murray wanted Rockingham to take after
Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1752, Rockingham was appointed Lord
of the Bedchamber to George II and married Mary Bright. In 1753 the
Rockingham Club was formed, containing the first Rockingham Whigs. Rockingham
hired James Stuart to paint portraits of William III and George II for the club
rooms. The club held monthly meetings and a list written in June 1754 showed
it had 133 members. In 1755 the King appointed him to the honorary office of
Vice Admiral of the North. During a French invasion scare in 1756 Rockingham
raised a volunteer militia at his own expense and when rioting broke out
against Army enlistments Rockingham restored order without the use of
military force in Sheffield. The Secretary at War, Lord Barrington, wrote
to him: "You are the only instance of a Lord lieutenant's exerting the civil
authority upon these occasions". Rockingham asked in 1760 to be made a
knight of the Order of the Garter and the King consented.
In 1760, George II died, and his grandson ascended the throne as George
III. Rockingham was allied to the Duke of Newcastle and his supporters, whilst
the new King had a favourite in Lord Bute. Rockingham believed that Bute and
his supporters wanted to take "the whole Administration & Government of this
country into their hands" and wanted Newcastle to resign now before he would
be inevitably disposed of. Rockingham believed that the revolution in British
politics since George III's accession was harmful to the country, since it
removed the Whigs from their ascendancy which had settled the constitution and
secured the House of Hanover on the British throne. Rockingham wrote to
Newcastle: ...without flattery to your Grace, I
must look and ever shall upon you and your connections as the solid
foundations on which every good which has happened to this country since the
[Glorious] Revolution, have been erected. ... What a medley of government
is probably soon to take place & when it does what an alarm will ensue!
Rockingham resigned as Lord of the Bedchamber on 3 November 1762 in protest
at the King's policies and other Whigs associated with the Duke of Newcastle
did the same. The next month the King removed Rockingham from the office of
Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding, Lord Lieutenant of the city and county of
York, as custos rotulorum of the North and West Riding, as custos rotulorum of
the city and county of York and as Vice Admiral of York city and county.
Over the next several years, Rockingham gradually became the leader of those of
Newcastle's supporters who were unwilling to reconcile themselves to the
premierships of Bute and his successor, George Grenville.
Prime Minister: 1765–1766 The king's dislike, as well as
Grenville's general lack of parliamentary support, led to his
dismissal in 1765, and, following negotiations conducted through the
medium of the king's uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, Lord Rockingham was
appointed Prime Minister. Rockingham recovered the honours of which he had
been deprived in 1762. Rockingham appointed his allies Henry Seymour
Conway and the Duke of Grafton as secretaries of state. Also at this time,
Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman and philosopher, became his private
secretary and would remain a lifelong friend, political ally and advisor until
Rockingham's premature death in 1782. Rockingham's administration was
dominated by the American issue. Rockingham wished for repeal of the
Stamp Act 1765 and won a Commons vote on the repeal resolution by 275 to 167 in
1766. However Rockingham also passed the Declaratory Act, which asserted that the
British Parliament had the right to legislate for the American colonies in
all cases whatsoever. However, internal dissent within the
cabinet led to his resignation and the appointment of Lord Chatham as Prime
Minister. Opposition: 1766–1782
Rockingham spent the next sixteen years in opposition. He was a keen supporter
of constitutional rights for colonists. Rockingham wrote to Edmund Burke on 14
February 1771: "I fear indeed the future struggles of the people in defence of
their Constitutional Rights will grow weaker and weaker. It is much too
probable that the power and influence of the Crown will increase rapidly. We live
at the period when for the first time since the Revolution, the power and
influence of the Crown is held out, as the main and chief and only support of
Government. If we...do not exert now, we may accelerate the abject state to which
the Constitution may be reduced". Rockingham wrote to Augustus Keppel on 3
November 1779, saying that he believed the war against America could not be
won, that the government was corrupt but not unpopular, and that the longer this
continued the greater the danger to the liberties and the constitution of
Britain: "Perhaps a total change of men and measures, & system in the
Government: of this country might have effect on the councils of some foreign
countries...who might think that it was no longer a Court system to combat, but
that the whole nation wd; united & make the utmost efforts".
Rockingham was recruited to hunt down the Cragg Vale Coiners. He had thirty
Coiners arrested by Christmas Day 1769. Prime Minister: 1782
In 1782 he was appointed Prime Minister for a second time and, upon taking
office, pushed for an acknowledgement of the independence of the United States,
initiating an end to British involvement in the American War of Independence.
Due to rising unemployment, in this second premiership, Rockingham's
administration saw the passage of Gilbert's Act, the Relief of the Poor
Act 1782, after 17 years of opposing Thomas Gilbert's ideas, this saw the
creation of unions of civil parishes, later officially called unions under
Gilbert's Act, to provide outdoor relief and set up workhouses.
Paul Langford has claimed that the Rockingham administration "represented a
landmark in constitutional history. The ministerial changes of 1782 involved a
more extensive upheaval among office-holders than any since 1714,
virtually replacing one administration with another drawn from opposition".
Rockingham's second term was short-lived, for Lord Rockingham died
fourteen weeks later at the beginning of July from an Influenza epidemic. He was
replaced as Prime Minister by Lord Shelburne, who was more reluctant to
accept the total independence of America and proposed a form of Dominion status,
however by April 1783 succeeded in securing peace with America and this
feat remains his legacy. Rockingham was buried in York Minster in
Yorkshire. Legacy
Rockingham's estates, but not his marquisate, passed to his nephew William
Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam. Burke wrote to him on 3 July 1782: "You are
Lord Rockingham in every thing. ... I have no doubt that you will take it in
good part, that his old friends, who were attached to him by every tie of
affection, and of principle, and among others myself, should look to you, and
should not think it an act of forwardness and intrusion to offer you
their services". On 7 July 150 supporters of Rockingham met at
Fitzwilliam's house and decided to withdraw support for Lord Shelburne's
administration. The old Rockingham party fragmented, with Fox and the Duke of
Portland leading a coalition of Whigs. The Whig party further split over the
French Revolution, with Burke writing to Fitzwilliam on 4 January 1797: "As to
our old friends, they are so many individuals, not a jot more separated
from your Lordship, than they are from one another. There is no mutual
affection, communication, or concert between them".
The Whig historian Thomas Babington Macaulay was an admirer of Rockingham
and his Whig faction: They were men worthy to have charged by
the side of Hampden at Chalgrove, or to have exchanged the last embrace with
Russell on the scaffold in Lincoln's Inn Fields. They carried into politics the
same high principles of virtue which regulated their private dealings, nor
would they stoop to promote even the noblest and most salutary ends by means
which honour and probity condemn. Such men were Lord John Cavendish, Sir George
Savile, and others whom we hold in honour as the second founders of the
Whig party, as the restorers of its pristine health and energy after half a
century of degeneracy. The chief of this respectable band was the Marquess of
Rockingham, a man of splendid fortune, excellent sense, and stainless
character. He was indeed nervous to such a degree that, to the very close of his
life, he never rose without great reluctance and embarrassment to address
the House of Lords. But, though not a great orator, he had in a high degree
some of the qualities of a statesman. He chose his friends well; and he had, in
an extraordinary degree, the art of attaching them to him by ties of the
most honourable kind. The cheerful fidelity with which they adhered to him
through many years of almost hopeless opposition was less admirable than the
disinterestedness and delicacy which they showed when he rose to power.
Canada Rockingham, Nova Scotia
United States Rockingham County, New Hampshire
Rockingham County, North Carolina Rockingham County, Virginia
Rockingham, Vermont Rockingham, North Carolina
Wentworth, North Carolina Rockingham's First Government, July 1765
– July 1766 The Marquess of Rockingham — First Lord
of the Treasury and Leader of the House of Lords
The Earl of Northington — Lord Chancellor
The Earl of Winchilsea — Lord President of the Council
The Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne — Lord Privy Seal
William Dowdeswell — Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Duke of Grafton — Secretary of State for the Northern Department
Henry Seymour Conway — Secretary of State for the Southern Department and
Leader of the House of Commons Marquess of Granby — Master-General of
the Ordnance The Earl of Egmont — First Lord of the
Admiralty HRH The Duke of Cumberland — Minister
without Portfolio Changes
October 1765 — The Duke of Cumberland dies.
May 1766 — The Duke of Grafton resigns from the cabinet. Henry Seymour Conway
succeeds him as Northern Secretary, and the Duke of Richmond succeeds Conway as
Southern Secretary. Rockingham's Second Government, March –
July 1782 The Marquess of Rockingham — First Lord
of the Treasury, Leader of the House of Lords
The Lord Thurlow — Lord Chancellor The Lord Camden — Lord President of the
Council The Duke of Grafton — Lord Privy Seal
The Earl of Shelburne — Secretary of State for the Home Department
Charles James Fox — Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the
House of Commons The Viscount Keppel — First Lord of the
Admiralty Henry Seymour Conway — Commander in
Chief of the Forces The Duke of Richmond — Master-General of
the Ordnance Lord John Cavendish — Chancellor of the
Exchequer The Lord Ashburton — Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster Titles
The Hon. Charles Watson-Wentworth Viscount Higham
Earl of Malton The Rt. Hon. The Earl Malton
The Most Hon. The Marquess of Rockingham The Most Hon. The Marquess of
Rockingham, KG The Most Hon. The Marquess of
Rockingham, KG, PC Ancestry
Notes Farrell, S. M. "Wentworth, Charles
Watson, second marquess of Rockingham". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Oxford University Press. doi:10.109328878. ; cited as RockODNB.
References W. M. Elofson, The Rockingham Connection
and the Second Founding of the Whig Party, 1768–1773.
S. M. Farrell, ‘Wentworth, Charles Watson-, second marquess of Rockingham’,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004;
online edn, January 2008, accessed 17 October 2009.
Ross J. S. Hoffman, The Marquis. A Study of Lord Rockingham, 1730–1782.
Paul Langford, The First Rockingham Administration. 1765–1766.
Paul Langford, A Polite and Commercial People. England. 1727–1783.
Frank O'Gorman, The Rise of Party in England. The Rockingham Whigs.
1760–1782. Further reading
C. Collyer, ‘The Rockinghams and Yorkshire politics, 1742–61’, The
Thoresby Miscellany, 12, Thoresby Society, 41, pp. 352–82.
A. Cox and A. Cox, Rockingham Pottery and Porcelain, 1745–1842.
G. H. Guttridge, The Early Career of Lord Rockingham, 1730–1765.
R. J. Hopper, ‘The second marquis of Rockingham, coin collector’, Antiquaries
Journal, 62, pp. 316–46. G. Thomas, earl of Albemarle [G. T.
Keppel], Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham and His Contemporaries, 2
vols.. R. B. Wragg, ‘The Rockingham mausoleum’,
Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 52, pp. 157–66.
External links More about Charles Wentworth, Marquess
of Rockingham genealogics.com
thepeerage.com