Sir George Montgomery, 2nd Baronet (1765 – 10 July 1831) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer and

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

politician of Scottish and Anglo-Irish descent.

Biography

Montgomery was the son of

Sir William Montgomery, 1st Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

by his second wife, Anne Evatt. In 1778 he received a commission in the

68th Regiment of Foot The 68th (Durham) Regiment of Foot (Light Infantry) was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1758. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 106th Bombay Light Infantry to form the Durham Light Infantry in 1881, the 68 ...

. He was promoted to captain in 1783 and transferred to the 14th Dragoons in 1786. In 1788, Montgomery succeeded to his father's

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, his elder half-brother, William, having predeceased the first baronet. He resigned from the army in 1790. Shortly afterwards he received the position of clerk of the head permit office in the

Dublin Castle administration Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, worth £800 a year in income, from

William Pitt the Younger William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...

's ministry. Montgomery continued to receive reimbursement for the office until 1812, when

Lord Liverpool Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. He held many important cabinet offices such as Foreign Secret ...

removed him from the compensation list. He appealed to the new Chief Secretary for Ireland, Robert Peel, who managed to pacify Montgomery by offering a compensatory pension. Montgomery stood for election as the

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 o ...

for the Scottish constituency of Peeblesshire in the January 1831 by-election caused by the retirement of his cousin,

Sir James Montgomery, 2nd Baronet Sir James Montgomery, 2nd Baronet Stanhope, FRSE (9 October 1766 – 27 May 1839) was a Scottish politician and lawyer who served as Lord Advocate of Scotland 1804 to 1806. Life James Montgomery was born in Peebleshire on 9 October 1766, the ...

. He won the election unopposed, promising to ‘promote the safety of the king and constitution’. He was again returned for the seat unopposed in the

1831 United Kingdom general election The 1831 United Kingdom general election saw a landslide win by supporters of electoral reform, which was the major election issue. As a result, it was the last unreformed election, as the Parliament which resulted ensured the passage of the Ref ...

, but died on 10 July 1831 shortly after parliament had reconvened. He is not recorded as having spoken in any debates in the Commons. He died having never married, at which point his title became extinct. Montgomery's property in Scotland and Ireland was divided according to his will, with the family house at Magbie Hill going to his nephew, John Isaac Beresford.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montgomery, George, 2nd Baronet 1765 births 1831 deaths 14th King's Hussars officers 68th Regiment of Foot officers Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Tory members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832