BARON

See also:

• GEORGE
• GEORGE, 8TH MARQUESS OF TWEEDDALE (1787-1876)
• GEORGE, HENRY (1839—1897)
• GEORGE, LAKE
• GEORGE, SAINT (d. 303)

GEORGE BUBB DODDINGTON

See also:

• BARON GEORGE BUBB DODDINGTON MELCOMBE (169r–1762)

MELCOMBE (169r–1762)  , English politician . His father's name was Bubb, but the son took the name of Doddington on inheriting a large property by the death of an uncle of that name (1720) . He was educated at Oxford . In 1715 he was returned to parliament as member for Winchelsea, and was sent as envoy extraordinary to Spain . He carried on a scandalous traffic in the five or six parliamentary votes which he controlled, his tergiversation and venality furnishing food for the political satirists and caricaturists of the day . His most estimable political action was his defence of Admiral Byng in the House of Commons (1757) . From 1722 to 1754 he sat in parliament for Bridge-water; from 1724 to 1740 was a lord of the treasury; and, in 1744, became treasurer of the navy under Henry Pelham, and, again in 1755, under Newcastle and Fox . In April 1761 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Melcombe of Melcombe Regis in Dorsetshire . He died at La Trappe, his Hammersmith house, on the 28th of July 1762 . His wife, acknowledged only after the death of another lady to whom he had given a bond that he would marry no one else, died without issue . He was a wit and a friend of wits, a good scholar, and something of a Maecenas; Thomson's " Summer " was dedicated to him, Fielding addressed to him an epistle and Edward Young a satire . He was a leading spirit of the Elell-fire " Club, whose members, called " Franciscans," from their founder Sir Francis Dashwood (d .

1781), held their

revels in the ruined Cistercian abbey of Medmenham, Bucks . His diary, published in 1784, reveals him in. his character of place-hunter and throws a curious light on the political methods of the time .