George Durant (20 November 1731 – 4 August 1780) was a British landowner and politician.

Life

Durant was born the second son of the Reverend Josiah Durant, rector of

Hagley Hagley is a village and civil parish in Worcestershire, England. It is on the boundary of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Worcestershire counties between the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley and Kidderminster. Its estimated populati ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

and educated at

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (also known as The Hall and Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university" and was the las ...

. As a young man he had an affair with Elizabeth Lyttleton, the second wife of George Lyttelton, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. To escape the consequent scandal he became a senior clerk in the Army Pay Office and was sent with the Army as paymaster on an expedition to

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Tong Tong may refer to: Chinese *Tang dynasty, a dynasty in Chinese history when transliterated from Cantonese *Tong (organization), a type of social organization found in Chinese immigrant communities *''tong'', pronunciation of several Chinese char ...

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

from the Duke of Kingston in 1764, knocked down the ancient

Tong Castle Tong Castle was a very large mostly Gothic country house in Shropshire whose site is between Wolverhampton and Telford, set within a park landscaped by Capability Brown,Wolverhampton's Listed Buildings on the site of a medieval castle of the sa ...

, and built in its place a new house in a unique style based on plans drawn up by

Capability Brown Lancelot "Capability" Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783) was an English gardener and landscape architect, a notable figure in the history of the English landscape garden style. Unlike other architects ...

. Between 1768 and 1774 he was Member of Parliament for

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and Civil parishes in England, parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, England, Worceste ...

. He stood for election again in 1774 but was badly defeated. Two weeks before the next general election in which he reportedly hoped to stand again for Evesham, he died in 1780 aged 48 and was buried in St Bartholomew's Church, Tong. He had married Maria, the daughter of Mark Beaufoy, with whom he had a son, also named George, and a daughter. Tong Castle passed to his son, who proved to be a somewhat lascivious Lord of the Manor.

References

DURANT, George (1731-80), of Tong Castle, Salop
* https://web.archive.org/web/20171129230526/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Ecommons2.htm * http://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2007/03/02/slavery__george_durant_feature.shtml 1731 births 1780 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1768–1774 Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub