Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh (27 October 1818 – 12 January 1887), known as Sir Stafford Northcote, Bt from 1851 to 1885, was a British
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
politician. He served as
Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1874 and 1880 and as
Foreign Secretary between 1885 and 1886
According to Nigel Keohane, historians have portrayed him "as a man who fell short of the ultimate achievement of being prime minister largely because of personal weakness, and lack of political virility and drive."
Background and education
Northcote (pronounced "Northcut") was born at Portland Place, London, on 27 October 1818. He was the eldest son of Henry Stafford Northcote (1792–1850), eldest son of Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, 7th Baronet. His mother was Agnes Mary (died 1840), daughter of Thomas Cockburn. His paternal ancestors had long been settled in
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, tracing their descent from Galfridas de Nordcote who settled there in 1103. The family home was situated at
Pynes House
Pynes House is a Grade II* listed Queen Anne style country house built by Hugh Stafford between around 1700 and 1725, situated in the parish of Upton Pyne, Devon, 3 miles northwest of Exeter. It was the manor house for the Manor of Upton Pyne, ...
northwest of
Exeter. Northcote was educated at
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England.
Eton may also refer to:
Places
*Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England
* Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States
* Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and
Balliol College, Oxford and was
called to the bar,
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...
, in 1847.
Early political career
In 1843 Northcote became private secretary to
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
at the Board of Trade. Northcote was afterwards legal secretary to the board and, after acting as one of the secretaries to the
Great Exhibition of 1851
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition which took pl ...
, co-operated with
Sir Charles Trevelyan in framing the
Northcote–Trevelyan Report
The Northcote-Trevelyan Report was a document prepared by Stafford H. Northcote (later to be Chancellor of the Exchequer) and C.E. Trevelyan (then Permanent Secretary at the Treasury) about the British Civil Service. Commissioned in 1853 and ...
, which revolutionized the conditions of appointment to the Civil Service. He succeeded his grandfather, Sir Stafford Henry Northcote (1762–1851), as 8th
baronet
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 14t ...
in 1851. He entered Parliament in 1855 as
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
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
Dudley
Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...
with the support of the influential local landowner
Lord Ward
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...
. However, tensions between Northcote and Lord Ward soon arose, in particular over a vote over conflict with China in which the two men supported opposite sides in the vote. Northcote subsequently decided not to contest Dudley again and stood unsuccessfully for North Devon in 1857. He returned to Parliament the following year, when he was elected for
Stamford in 1858, a seat that he exchanged in 1866 for
North Devon. He was briefly
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
The financial secretary to the Treasury is a mid-level ministerial post in His Majesty's Treasury. It is nominally the fifth most significant ministerial role within the Treasury after the first lord of the Treasury, the chancellor of the Excheq ...
under the
Earl of Derby
Earl of Derby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the en ...
from January to July 1859.
Later political career
Steadily supporting his party, he became
President of the Board of Trade in 1866,
Secretary of State for India
His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India Secretary or the Indian Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of th ...
in 1867 and
Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1874. In 1870, during the interval between the last two appointments, he was the Governor of the
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
, North America's oldest company (established by an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...
in 1670), when it
sold the Northwest Territories to Canada. Northcote was one of the commissioners for the settlement of the
Alabama Claims
The ''Alabama'' Claims were a series of demands for damages sought by the federal government of the United States, government of the United States from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom in 1869, for the attacks upon ...
with the United States, culminating with the
Treaty of Washington in 1871.
On
Benjamin Disraeli's elevation to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
as Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876, Northcote became Leader of the Conservatives in the Commons. As a finance minister, he largely continued the lines of policy laid down by Gladstone. However, he distinguished himself by his dealings with the debt, especially his introduction of the new
sinking fund
A sinking fund is a fund established by an economic entity by setting aside revenue over a period of time to fund a future capital expense, or repayment of a long-term debt.
In North America and elsewhere where it is common for public and priva ...
in 1876 by which he fixed the annual charge for the debt in such a way as to provide for a regular series of payments off the capital.
His temper as leader was, however, too gentle to satisfy the more ardent spirits among his own followers. Party cabals (in which
Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill (13 February 1849 – 24 January 1895) was a British statesman. Churchill was a Tory radical and coined the term 'Tory democracy'. He inspired a generation of party managers, created the National Union of ...
took a leading part) led to Northcote's elevation to the Lords in 1885, when
Lord Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a total of over thirteen y ...
became prime minister. Taking the titles of Earl of Iddesleigh and Viscount St Cyres, he was included in the cabinet as
First Lord of the Treasury
The first lord of the Treasury is the head of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury exercising the ancient office of Lord High Treasurer in the United Kingdom, and is by convention also the prime minister. This office is not equivalent to the ...
. In Lord Salisbury's 1886 ministry he became
Foreign Secretary, but the arrangement was not a comfortable one, and his resignation had just been decided upon when on 12 January 1887, he died very suddenly at the First Lord of the Treasury's official residence,
10 Downing Street.
Other public positions
Northcote 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 knowledge, including mathemat ...
in 1875 and
Lord Rector of Edinburgh University
The Lord Rector of The University of Edinburgh is elected every three years by the students and staff at The University of Edinburgh. Seldom referred to as ''Lord Rector'', the incumbent is more commonly known just as the ''Rector''.
Role
T ...
in 1883, in which capacity he addressed the students on the subject of "Desultory Reading". From 1886 to 1887 he was also
Lord Lieutenant of Devon
The Office of the Lord Lieutenant was created during the reign of Henry VIII (1509–1547), taking over the military duties of the Sheriffs and control of the military forces of the Crown. From 1569 there was provision for the appointment of Depu ...
. He was not a prolific or notable writer, but amongst his works were ''Twenty Years of Financial Policy'' (1862), a valuable study of Gladstonian finance, and ''Lectures and Essays'' (1887). His ''Life'' by Andrew Lang appeared in 1890. Northcote was appointed a
CB in 1851 and a
GCB in 1880 and was sworn of the
Privy Council in 1866.
He was one of only two people to hold the office of First Lord of the Treasury without ever being Prime Minister.
Family and personal life
![Portrait of Sir Stafford Northcote, Bart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Portrait_of_Sir_Stafford_Northcote%2C_Bart.%2C_Secretary_to_the_Royal_Commissioners_%284670419%29.jpg)
Northcote married Cecilia Frances Farrer (died 1910), daughter of Thomas Farrer and sister of
Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer
Thomas Henry Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer (24 June 1819 – 11 October 1899), was an English civil servant and statistician.
Background and early life
Farrer was the son of Thomas Farrer, a solicitor in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Born in London, he was ...
, in 1843. They had seven sons and three daughters. His second son,
Henry, 1st Baron Northcote, was
Governor-General of Australia. Another son,
Amyas Amyas is a surname and male forename thought to be derived either from the Latin verb '' amare'' or the French city of Amiens.
People
*Sir Amyas Bampfylde (1560–1626), English politician and Member of Parliament for Devon in 1597
* Amyas Borto ...
, later became known as a writer of
ghost stories
A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. ...
.
In the aftermath of the
British Expedition to Abyssinia
The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire (also known at the time as Abyssinia). Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia, ...
, Northcote built up a small but prestigious collection of Ethiopian artefacts that is now in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
British Museum Collection
britishmuseum.org; accessed 24 July 2017.
The 1881 Census shows him living next door to Lord Randolph Churchill
Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill (13 February 1849 – 24 January 1895) was a British statesman. Churchill was a Tory radical and coined the term 'Tory democracy'. He inspired a generation of party managers, created the National Union of ...
MP and family, at 30 St James Place, Westminster.
References
*
Further reading
* Cooke, A. B. “A Conservative Party Leader in Ulster: Sir Stafford Northcote’s Diary of a Visit to the Province, October 1883.” ''Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, '' vol. 75, (1975), pp. 61–84
online
* Iddesleigh, Stafford Henry Northcote. "Speech of the Rt. Hon. Sir Stafford Northcote, to the Working-Men’s Conservative Association of Edinburgh" (Edinburgh Conservative Association, 1876), pp. 1–12
online
* Keohane, Nigel Thomas. "The Lost Leader: Sir Stafford Northcote and the Leadership of the Conservative Party, 1876–85." ''Parliamentary History'' 27.3 (2008): 361-379.
* Lang, Andrew. ''Life, Letters, and Diaries of Sir Stafford Northcote, First Earl of Iddesleigh'' (1891
online
* Swartz, Marvin. ''The politics of British foreign policy in the era of Disraeli and Gladstone'' (London: Macmillan, 1985).
External links
*
* The Rowers of Vanity Fair – Northcote, Stafford Henry (''Earl of Iddesleigh'')
{{DEFAULTSORT:Northcote, Stafford Henry
Chancellors of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom
1818 births
1887 deaths
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Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
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UK MPs who were granted peerages
Iddesleigh, Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of
Iddesleigh, Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of
Iddesleigh, Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of
Iddesleigh, Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of
Rectors of the University of Edinburgh
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Fellows of the Royal Society
Leaders of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
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Iddesleigh, Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of