Charles Philip Yorke (12 March 1764 – 13 March 1834) was a British politician. He notably served as

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...

from 1803 to 1804.

Political career

He sat as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

from 1790 to 1810. He was commissioned as an officer in the

Cambridgeshire Militia The Cambridgeshire Militia was a militia regiment in Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, United Kingdom from 1759 to 1881, when it was amalgamated into The Suffolk Regiment. History The Cambridgeshire Militia was formed under the Militia Ac ...

in 1793. He was promoted to major in 1795, a fellow officer was Captain

George Manby Captain George William Manby FRS (28 November 1765 – 18 November 1854) was an English author and inventor. He designed an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks and also the first modern form of fire extinguisher. Early life Manby was bo ...

By 1806 he was their colonel. He was MP for

Liskeard Liskeard ( ; kw, Lyskerrys) is a small ancient stannary and market town in south-east Cornwall, South West England. It is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth, west of the Devon border, and 12 miles (20 km) eas ...

from 1812 to 1818. In 1801 he was appointed

Secretary at War The Secretary at War was a political position in the English and later British government, with some responsibility over the administration and organization of the Army, but not over military policy. The Secretary at War ran the War Office. Afte ...

in Henry Addington's ministry, transferring to the Home Office in 1803, where he was a strong opponent of concession to the

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. He made himself exceedingly unpopular in 1810 by bringing about the exclusion of strangers, including reporters for the press, from the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

under the standing order, which led to the imprisonment of

Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet (25 January 1770 – 23 January 1844) was a British politician and Member of Parliament who gained notoriety as a proponent (in advance of the Chartists) of universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, vo ...

in the

Tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

and to riots in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In the same year, Yorke joined Spencer Perceval's government as

First Lord of the Admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...

. He retired from public life in 1818. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1801.

Family

Yorke was the second son of the Hon.

Charles Yorke Charles Yorke Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (30 December 172220 January 1770) was briefly Lord Chancellor, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. His father was also Lord Chancellor, and he began his career as a Member of Parliament. ...

and grandson of

Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, (1 December 16906 March 1764) was an English lawyer and politician who served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. He was a close confidant of the Duke of Newcastle, Prime Minister between 1754 and 1 ...

. His mother was Agneta, daughter of Henry Johnstone. His brother was Admiral Sir Joseph Sidney Yorke (1768–1831), whose son succeeded to the earldom of Hardwicke. Yorke married Harriott, eldest daughter of Charles Manningham, Esq. of Thorpe, Surrey in July 1790. They had no children. He died in March 1834, one day after his 70th birthday. He had a natural son,

Charles Eurwicke Douglas Sir Charles Eurwicke Douglas (12 May 1806 – 21 February 1887) was an English M.P. Life Charles Eurwicke Douglas was the natural son of the Right Hon. Charles Philip Yorke.The peerage, baronetage, and knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland He ...

Legacy

In 1802,

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

named

Yorke Peninsula The Yorke Peninsula is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Strai ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

after Yorke.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yorke, Charles Philip 1764 births 1834 deaths Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Secretaries of State for the Home Department Lords of the Admiralty Tory MPs (pre-1834) Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1790–1796 British MPs 1796–1800 Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for St Germans Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1801–1802 UK MPs 1802–1806 UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 Charles Philip Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liskeard