George Nugent-Grenville, 2nd Baron Nugent of Carlanstown,

GCMG The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George III. It is named in honour ...

(31 December 1788 – 26 November 1850), was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

politician.

Life

A younger son of George Nugent-Temple, 1st Marquess of Buckingham, by Lady Mary Elizabeth Nugent, only daughter and heiress of Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent, he was born on 31 December 1788. His mother was created a baroness of the kingdom of Ireland in 1800, with remainder to her second son; and on her death (16 March 1813) he consequently succeeded to the peerage. Nugent was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, and in 1810 received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from the university. He was Whig

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 Buckingham, 1810–1812. This was a

rotten borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorate ...

controlled by the Grenvilles. At the general election of 1812 Nugent was returned to Parliament for the borough of Aylesbury; but in 1818 he was in some danger of losing his seat in consequence of his brother Richard, then by courtesy the Marquess of Buckingham, having joined the ministry. Nugent stood in his own interest, however, and was returned. He fought another successful contest in 1831, and remained one of the members for Aylesbury until the dissolution in 1832. In November 1830 Nugent was made one of the

Lords of the Treasury In the United Kingdom there are at least six Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, serving as a commission for the ancient office of Treasurer of the Exchequer. The board consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of the ...

, but he resigned this position in August 1832, to become Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. This office he retained for three years, returning to England with the

Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

. He again offered himself for Aylesbury in 1837 and 1839, but was defeated on both occasions; and in 1843, when he stood, with the reformer George Thompson, for

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, he sustained a third defeat. On reappearing at Aylesbury in 1847 he was returned. Nugent was an extreme Whig, or a whig-radical, in politics. He was a strong supporter of Queen

Caroline of Brunswick Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (Caroline Amelia Elizabeth; 17 May 1768 – 7 August 1821) was Queen of the United Kingdom and Hanover from 29 January 1820 until her death in 1821, being the estranged wife of King George IV. She was Pri ...

, and he visited Spain as a partisan of the Spanish Liberals against the Carlists. In the session of 1848 Nugent moved for leave to bring in a bill abolishing the separate imprisonment in

gaol A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, English language in England, standard English, Australian English, Australian, and Huron Historic Gaol, historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention cen ...

s of persons committed for trial, but the motion was lost. During the same session he advocated the abolition of

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. In 1849 he voted for limiting the powers of the Habeas Corpus (Ireland) Suspension Bill, and also supported a measure for the further repeal of Penal Laws. He was a member of the

Reform Club The Reform Club is a private members' club on the south side of Pall Mall in central London, England. As with all of London's original gentlemen's clubs, it comprised an all-male membership for decades, but it was one of the first all-male cl ...

and the Athenaeum Club. Nugent died on 26 November 1850, at his residence in Buckinghamshire.

Works

In 1812 Nugent published ''Portugal, a Poem'' then in 1829 ''Oxford and Locke'', which defended the expulsion of Locke from the University of Oxford against the censures of

Dugald Stewart Dugald Stewart (; 22 November 175311 June 1828) was a Scottish philosopher and mathematician. Today regarded as one of the most important figures of the later Scottish Enlightenment, he was renowned as a populariser of the work of Francis Hut ...

. Nugent's sympathetic ''Memorials of John Hampden'' appeared in 1832. The work was favourably reviewed by Thomas Babington Macaulay in the '' Edinburgh Review'', and adversely by

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

in the '' Quarterly Review'', resulting in a flurry of correspondence. ''Legends of the Library at Lillies'' (his family seat) appeared in 1832: "from the fireside of the... little oak library the following legends proceed."''XIX Century Fiction'', Part I, A–K (Jarndyce, Bloomsbury, 2019). It was followed by the two-volume travelogue ''Lands Classical and Sacred'' in 18456. Nugent also wrote pamphlets on political, social, and ecclesiastical subjects.

Family

Nugent married, 6 September 1813, Anne Lucy, second daughter of Major-General the Hon.

Vere Poulett Lieutenant-General The Honourable Vere Poulett (May 1761-15 March 1812), was a British soldier and politician. Poulett was a younger son of Vere Poulett, 3rd Earl Poulett Vere Poulett, 3rd Earl Poulett (18 May 1710 – 14 April 1788), styled T ...

. She died without issue in 1848, and the barony became extinct on the death of Nugent.

References

;Attribution

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nugent-Grenville, George 1788 births 1850 deaths 19th-century Irish people Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Nugent, George Nugent-Grenville, 2nd Baron Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Nugent, George Nugent-Grenville, 2nd Baron UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs 1818–1820 UK MPs 1820–1826 UK MPs 1826–1830 UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1847–1852 UK MPs who inherited peerages

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Barons Nugent Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge