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See also: EARL OF (1684-s764) generally known by the surname of PULTENEY, See also: English politiciahl descended from an See also: ancient See also: family of See also: Leicestershire, was the sqi of See also: William Pulteney by his first wife, Mary FIoyd, and was
See also: born in See also: April 1684
.
The boy was sent to See also: Westminster school, and from it proceeded to Christ See also: Church,
See also: Oxford, matriculating ;th 31st of See also: October 1700
.
At these institutions he acquired his deep classical knowledge
.
On leaving Oxford he made the usualtouf on the continent
.
In 1705 he was brought into parliament by See also: Henry
See also: Guy (secretary of the See also: treasury, 1679-1688, and See also: June 169i. to See also: February 1695) for the See also: Yorkshire See also: borough of )'Iedon, See also: ana '## his See also: death on the 23rd of February 1710 inherited an estate '6
5ooa See also: year and £40,000 in See also: cash
.
This seat was held by him without a break until 1734
.
Throughout the reign of See also: Queen See also: Anne William Pulteney played a prominent See also: part in the struggles of the Whigs, and on the See also: prosecution of Sacheverell he exerted himself with See also: great zeal against that violent divine
.
When the victorious Tories sent his friend Robert Walpole to the Tower in 1712, Pulteney championed his cause in the See also: House of See also: Commons and with the leading Whigs visited him in his prison-chamber
.
He held the See also: post of secretary of war from 1714 to 1717 in the first See also: ministry of See also: George I., and when the committee of secrecy on the See also: Utrecht treaty was formed in April 1715 the See also: list included the name of William Pulteney
.
Two years later (6th of See also: July 1716, he became one of the privy council
.
When See also: Townshend was dismissed, in April 1717, from his post of See also: lord-See also: lieutenant of See also: Ireland, and Walpole resigned his places, they were followed in their retirement by Pulteney
.
The See also: crash of the See also: South See also: Sea See also: Company restored Walpole to the highest position, but all that he offered to Pulteney was a See also: peerage
.
The offer was rejected, but in May 1723 Pulteney stooped to accept the lucrative but insignificant post of cofferer of the See also: household
.
In this obscure position he was content for some See also: time to await the future; but when he found himself neglected he opposed the proposition of Walpole to discharge the debts of the See also: civil list, and in April 1725 was dismissed from his sinecure
.
From the See also: day of his dismissal to that of his ultimate See also: triumph Pulteney remained in opposition, and, although See also: Sir Robert Walpole attempted in 1730 to conciliate him by the offer of Townshend's place and of a peerage, all his overtures were spurned.- Pulteney's resentment was not confined to his speeches in parliament
.
With Bolingbroke he set on See also: foot in See also: December 1726 the well-known periodical called the Craftsman, and in its pages the See also: minister was incessantly denounced for many years
.
Lord See also: Hervey published an attack on the Craftsman, and Pulteney,, either openly or behind the See also: person of See also: Amhurst, its editor, replied to the attack
.
Whether the question at issue was the civil list, the excise, the income of the See also: prince of See also: Wales, or the See also: state of domestic affairs Pulteney was ready with a pamphlet, and the minister or one of his See also: friends came out with a reply
.
For his Proper reply to a See also: late scurrilous See also: libel " (Craftsman, 1731), an answer to " Sedition and defamation displayed," he was challenged to a duel by Lord Hervey; for another, " An answer to one part of an infamous libel entitled remarks on the Craftsman's indication of his two honourable patrons," he was in July 1731 struck off the See also: roll of privy councillors and dismissed from the commission of the See also: peace in several counties
.
In See also: print Pulteney was inferior to Bolingbroke alone among the antagonists of Walpole, but in parliament, from which St See also: John was excluded, he excelled all his comrades
.
When the sinking fund was appropriated in 1733 his
See also: voice was the foremost in denunciation; when the excise scheme in the same year was stirring popular feeling to its lowest depths the passion of the multitude broke out in his oratory
.
Through Walpole's prudent withdrawal of the latter measure the fall of his ministry was averted
.
Bolingbroke withdrew to See also: France on the See also: suggestion, it is said,"of Pulteney, and the opposition was weakened by the dissensions of the leaders
.
From 'the general election of 1734 Until his See also: elevation to the peerage Pulteney sat for Middlesex
.
For some years after this election the minister's assailants made little progress in their attack, but in 1738 the troubles with See also: Spain supplied them with the opportunity. which they desired
.
Walpole long argued for peace, but he was feebly supported in his own See also: cabinet, and the frenzy of the See also: people for war knew no See also: bounds
.
In an evil moment for his own reputation he consented to remain in office and to gratify popular passion with a war against Spain
.
His downfall was not long -deferred
.
War was declared in 1739; a new parliament was summoned in the summer of 1741, and over the divisions, on the election petitions the ministry of Walpole See also: fell to pieces
.
The task of forming the new administration was after some delay entrusted to-Pulteney, who weakly offered the post of first lord of the treasury to that harmless politician the earl of See also: Wilmington, and contented himself with a seat in the cabinet and a peerage, thinking that by this See also: action he would preservehis reputation for consistency in disdaining office and yet retain his supremacy in the ministry
.
At this See also: act popular feeling broke out into open indignation, and from the moment of his elevation to the Upper House Pulteney's influence dwindled to nothing
.
Horace Walpole asserts that when Pulteney wished to recall his See also: desire for 'a peerage it was forced upon him through the ex-minister's advice by the See also: king, and another chronicler of the times records that when victor and vanquished met in the House of Lords, the one as Lord
See also: Orford, the other as the earl of See also: Bath, the remark was made by the exulting' Orford: Here we are, my lord, the two most insignificant See also: fellows in See also: England." On the 14th of ' July 1742 Pulteney was created Baron Pulteney of See also: Hedon, Co
.
See also: York, Viscount Pulteney of Wrington, Co
.
See also: Somerset, and earl of Bath
.
On the loth of February he had been restored to his See also: rank in the privy council
.
At Wilmington's death in 1743 he made application to the king for the post of first lord of the treasury, only to 'find that it had been conferred on Henry Pelham
.
For two days, loth-12th February 1746, he was at the heal of a ministry; but in " 48 See also: hours, three quarters, seven minutes, and eleven seconds " it collapsed
.
An occasional pamphlet and an infrequent speech were afterwards the See also: sole fruits of Lord Bath's talents
.
His praises whilst in retirement have been sung by two bishops, Zachary See also: Pearce and See also: Thomas
See also: Newton
.
He died on the 7th of July 1764, and was buried on the 17th of July in his own vault in See also: Islip See also: chapel, Westminster Abbey
.
He married on the 27th of December 1714 Anna Maria, daughter and co-heiress of john Gumley of Isleworth, commissary-general to the army who was often satirized by the wits of the day (ITotes and Queries, 3rd S. ii
.
402-403, 490)
.
She died on the 14th of See also: September 1758, and their only son William died unmarried at See also: Madrid on the 12th of February 1763
.
Pulteney's vast See also: fortune came in 1767 to William See also: Johnstone of Dumfries (third son of Sir See also: James Johnstone), who had married Frances, daughter and co-heiress of his
See also: cousin, Daniel Pulteney, a bitter
antagonist of Walpole in parliament, and had taken the name of Pulteney
.
Pulteney's eloquence was keen and incisive, sparkling with vivacity and with allusions See also: drawn from the literature of his own country and of See also: Rome
.
Of business he was never fond, and the loss in 1734 of his trusted friend John See also: Merrill, who had supplied the qualities which he lacked, was feelingly lamented by him in a letter to See also: Swift
.
His chief weakness was a passion for See also: money
.
Lord Bath has See also: left no trace of the possession of See also: practical statesmanship
.
B1BL1OGRA1'HY.—Wm . Coxe'sSee also: Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole (1816), and of Henry Pelham (1829) ; John See also: Morley'sWalpole (1889) ; Walter Sichel's Bolingbroke (1901–1902) ; A
.
Ballantyne's See also: Carteret (1887); Eng
.
Hist
.
Rev. iv
.
749-753, and the general See also: political memoirs of the time
.
(W
.
P
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