The Hon.
''The Honourable'' (Commonwealth English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of cert ...
George Villiers (23 November 1759 – 21 March 1827) was a British courtier and politician from the
Villiers family
Villiers ( ) is an Nobility, aristocratic family in the United Kingdom. Over time, various members of the Villiers family were made knights, baronets, and peers. Peerages held by the Villiers family include the dukedoms of Duke of Buckingham, Bucki ...
. The youngest son of the diplomat
Lord Hyde (later Earl of Clarendon), he was an intimate of
Princess Amelia and personal supporter of her father,
George III
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
. His favour within the Royal Family and his father's influence brought him a number of
sinecure
A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is a position with a salary or otherwise generating income that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, ...
s to support him. However, Villiers was more interested in the operation of the royal farms at
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...
than in politics or the duties of his offices. When his bookkeeping as
Paymaster of the Marines was carefully examined in 1810, Villiers' carelessness and the speculation of his clerk had left him in debt to the Crown by more than £250,000. This exposure touched off a public scandal; Villiers promptly surrendered all his property to the Crown and threw himself on the king's mercy. The misconduct of Joseph Hunt as
Treasurer of the Ordnance
The Treasurer of the Ordnance was a subordinate of the Master-General of the Ordnance in the United Kingdom, the office being created in 1670. The office was abolished in 1836 and its duties merged with that of several others to form the office ...
to some extent obscured Villiers' own misconduct, and he was able to retain other sinecures and a stable, if reduced, income from them until his death in 1827.
Upbringing and political career
Villiers was the youngest son of
Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (1709 – 11 December 1786) was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British politician and diplomat from the Villiers family.
Clarendon was the second son of William Villie ...
and
Charlotte Capell. His maternal grandparents were
William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex and Jane Hyde. George, like his brother, was educated at
Eton College
Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
and then
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...
, graduating with an MA in 1779. It was presumably through the influence of his father, then
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Excluding the prime minister, the chancellor is the highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the prime minister ...
under the
first Pitt ministry
William Pitt the Younger led the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain from 1783 to 1801.
In 1800, the Acts of Union between Great Britain and Ireland were accepted by their respective parliaments, creating the new United Kingdom of Grea ...
, that he was appointed a
Groom of the Bedchamber
Groom of the Chamber was a position in the Royal Household, Household of the monarch in early modern Kingdom of England, England. Other ''Ancien Régime'' royal establishments in Europe had comparable officers, often with similar titles. In King ...
to George III on 13 January 1783, and
Clerk of the Council and Registrar of the Duchy of Lancaster in August 1786. A polished courtier,
Villiers earned the nickname "Tiger" among his party for his vehement support of the king; although as
Fanny Burney observed, his "remarkably slim, slight and delicate person" did not match the nickname.
In 1792, Villiers purchased the support of
Lord Warwick,
and was returned as Member of Parliament for
Warwick
Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...
in the by-election of 18 January 1792 as a
Tory
A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
. On 19 March 1792, shortly after his entry into Parliament, Villiers was appointed to the office of
Paymaster of Marines, a sinecure which would ultimately prove his undoing. The salary of the post was fixed at £600 p.a. after a reform in 1800.
In 1794, Villiers became the
Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
commanding the newly raised
Western Troop of the
Hertfordshire Gentlemen and Yeomanry-Cavalry.
He was elected unopposed in 1796, but did not stand for the borough in 1802. Though a friend of Pitt's government, he rarely attended the House;
George Rose commented in a letter that Villiers's loss would have no impact on the Tories.
While a member of parliament, in 1798, he married
Lord Boringdon's daughter, Theresa, who would bear him ten children over the next two decades.
After leaving Parliament, Villiers continued his presence at Court, and carried messages from the
Princess Royal
Princess Royal is a substantive title, title customarily (but not automatically) awarded by British monarchs to their eldest daughters. Although purely honorary, it is the highest honour that may be given to a female member of the royal famil ...
in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
to the king.
In 1803, the duties of his office as paymaster were extended, and on 9 May, he was reappointed as Paymaster and Inspector-General of Marines, with a salary of £1,000 p.a.
In the same year, he was commissioned a captain in the Watford Volunteer Cavalry. Villiers was prepared to intercede with the king on behalf of Pitt to fulfill the latter's desire for a more comprehensive ministry, which, however, was frustrated; and to bring Pitt's friends into the
Ministry of All the Talents in 1806.
Villiers, indeed, enjoyed considerable favour with the king,
who granted him a private bounty of £400 p.a. in 1804 after being compelled to refuse him an office at Windsor Park. He was allowed to hold simultaneous office as a groom of the bedchamber and paymaster, and the king determined to place him in charge of his farms at Windsor as
bailiff
A bailiff is a manager, overseer or custodian – a legal officer to whom some degree of authority or jurisdiction is given. There are different kinds, and their offices and scope of duties vary.
Another official sometimes referred to as a '' ...
. Villiers and his family lived at Windsor Old Lodge until 1805, when he was appointed ranger of Cranbourne Chase and he moved into
Cranbourne Lodge
Cranbourne Lodge was a keeper's lodge for the royal hunting grounds of Cranbourne Chase, once adjoining but now part of Windsor Great Park in the England, English county of Berkshire. All that remains of it today is the Grade II* listed Cranbou ...
, newly renovated as his residence. Villiers and his wife were particularly intimate with
Princess Amelia, the king's favourite daughter, accounting in part for the Royal favour shown him.
With the fall of the Ministry of All the Talents in 1807 and the formation of Portland's government, the
Duke of Cumberland
Duke of Cumberland is a peerage title that was conferred upon junior members of the British royal family, named after the historic county of Cumberland.
History
The Earldom of Cumberland, created in 1525, became extinct in 1643. The dukedom w ...
vigorously lobbied Portland to grant Villiers the
mastership of the Buckhounds or some other office, on the grounds of Villiers having rendered "very serious and important services" to the Royal Family, but was unsuccessful.
In 1809, upon the death of John Fordyce,
Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown, Portland proposed to replace that office and that of the
Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases, then held by
Lord Glenbervie, with a three-man commission (the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests
The Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues were established in the United Kingdom in 1810 by merging the former offices of Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases and Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown in ...
), and to make Villiers one of the junior commissioners. This reorganisation of the Crown Lands temporarily halted upon Portland's resignation and the formation of a new government under
Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and barrister who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. He is the only British prime minister to have been as ...
. This created an embarrassing difficulty for Villiers and his interest;
George Canning
George Canning (; 11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as foreign secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the U ...
did not choose to serve under Perceval, and Villiers' brother-in-law, the 2nd
Lord Boringdon, was Canning's friend. Nor was the proposed appointment of Villiers universally popular; Lord Glenbervie, the proposed senior commissioner, vented his anger at Perceval's nomination of Villiers in his journal:
Nonetheless, Villiers continued to press his claims to office on Perceval, in a letter of 18 October 1809. He had, he said, turned down a pension of £1,200 p.a. for "reasons...which can never be publicly alluded to"
and had received a promise from Portland to replace Fordyce as Surveyor General of the Land Revenues (a post worth £2,000 p.a.); Villiers would, however, be satisfied with the commissionership and £1,000 p.a. in addition, provided that he might retain his office of paymaster. In fact, that office was about to become the engine of Villiers' political destruction.
He appears to have received the sinecure offices of registrar of the
Vice-Admiralty Court of
Gibraltar
Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
and marshal of the Vice-Admiralty Court of
Antigua
Antigua ( ; ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the local population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua ...
around this time.
[Thorne dates these appointments to 1811, but a letter of 27 January 1810 by "A.B." in ''Cobbett's political register'' refers to "sinecures at Gibraltar, and in the West Indies," presumably the same.]
Scandal and disgrace
The value to the
sinecurist of an office like that of Paymaster of Marines lay not so much in the official salary attached to it, but in the lax accounting procedures associated with disbursement of funds, which allowed the official to retain large sums of public money in his own hands for many years until accounts were made up. The office of
Paymaster General
His Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The position is currently held by Nick Thomas-Symonds of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party.
History
The post was ...
had been reformed in 1783 to avoid these abuses, but these changes had not yet been extended to the Marines during Villiers' tenure.
He appears to have taken little interest in his official duties both as paymaster and inspector-general, leaving affairs in the hands of Edmund Waters. Waters had been his private secretary, and when Villiers came to office as paymaster, Waters was appointed chief clerk in that department, rising to deputy paymaster in 1797.
Waters and Villiers invested in real estate with some of the money passing through the office;
unfortunately for Villiers, Waters was also diverting some of the funds to his own interest in the
Opera House
An opera house is a theater building used for performances of opera. Like many theaters, it usually includes a stage, an orchestra pit, audience seating, backstage facilities for costumes and building sets, as well as offices for the institut ...
,
and the accounts of the office were in a shambles.
Well aware of the parlous state of the office's accounts, Waters retired from the Marine Pay Office in 1807 as an independently wealthy man (only to lose the fortune in his Opera House investments).
The lax regime in the Pay Office rattled on, however, until 27 December 1809, when Perceval became aware of the state of Villiers' accounts. Villiers, to his credit, immediately resigned and took responsibility for his official debts.
Perceval allowed him to proffer his resignation directly to the king, but Villiers could not face his master; Perceval informed the king of the state of affairs in a letter of 15 January 1810, laying the blame for the situation largely on Waters. Perceval's letter noted that "reports were circulating on the subject to such an extent as to make it impossible to hope that it would not become the subject of Parliamentary observation." By this time, Villiers's accounts had been audited through the year 1804, revealing him to be in arrears by the staggering sum of £280,000 through that point. On the advice of his brother-in-law Boringdon, Villiers offered up all his property to the Crown, although he could not hope to pay off the entire sum found wanting by this means. The episode left him in a condition of nervous prostration, the more so as he by now had five children to support.
A letter by "A.B." in
Cobbett's ''Political Register'' of 27 January 1810 assailed Villiers for his delinquency and estimated that his debt, with interest, might run to £500,000.
Fortunately for Villiers, his case was not to be prosecuted with the utmost rigour. He was to some degree protected by the joint efforts of Boringdon's friends and the
Whig George Tierney, as well as his own quick action in surrendering his property through
writs of extent; and the delinquency of
Joseph Hunt,
Treasurer of the Ordnance
The Treasurer of the Ordnance was a subordinate of the Master-General of the Ordnance in the United Kingdom, the office being created in 1670. The office was abolished in 1836 and its duties merged with that of several others to form the office ...
attracted attention and saved Villiers from the full wrath of the finance committee. Their report on the matter noted that the writ of extent had been to the amount of £264,000, but only £91,000 had been raised from the sale of his property, and about £30,000 from securities and the bond posted for him when he took office. The committee recommended the abolition of the office of Paymaster of Marines and the transfer of its duties to the
Treasurer of the Navy
The Treasurer of the Navy, originally called Treasurer of Marine Causes or Paymaster of the Navy, was a civilian officer of the Royal Navy, one of the principal commissioners of the Navy Board responsible for naval finance from 1524 to 1832. T ...
, a recommendation which was not immediately acted upon. Villiers was left, in Boringdon's estimation, with a debt of £1,500–2,000, an annual income of £2,000–3,000, and the property in Cranbourne Lodge.
However, his disgrace was not over. After his resignation, Villiers had been replaced by
Lord Mulgrave's brother,
Edmund Phipps, as paymaster and lost his prospective place as a commissioner of woods and forests. Then, he was informed on 4 May 1810, after the release of the finance committee's report, that the king had removed from him the supervision of the farms at Windsor (he also lost the rangership). The news threw him into a state of great mental distress; he wrote to the king begging him to suspend judgement on the points raised by the committee's report. The king replied that it was "indispensable" to remove Villiers from his office under the circumstances, but extended his sympathy and suspended judgement on him.
The final disaster for Villiers occurred in November, when Princess Amelia died. After her death, Villiers and his wife attempted to blackmail the Royal Family by threatening (in a letter to her doctor,
Sir Henry Halford) to release some of her correspondence, much to the shock of her sister,
Princess Mary.
The family finally moved out of Cranborne Lodge in 1812.
The untangling of his accounts dragged on until 1819, prolonged by his enemies at the
Navy Office and his own fiscal incapacity. At length a balance of £220,000 was found against him, but by this time his career was hopelessly ruined. He left office as a groom of the bedchamber in 1815, but retained his vice-admiralty sinecures until his death.
In 1824, he became
heir presumptive
An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of a person with a better claim to the position in question. This is in contrast to an heir app ...
to the
Earldom of Clarendon but died in 1827 without inheriting it.
Marriage and children

On 17 April 1798, George married Theresa Parker. She was a daughter of
John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon
John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon (1735 – 27 April 1788) was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British peer and Member of Parliament.
Origins
Parker was the eldest son of John Parker (1703–1768) of Boringdon Hall, Plympton, and Saltram House, by ...
and his second wife
Hon. Theresa Robinson. Her maternal grandparents were
Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham and Frances Worsley. They had ten children:
*Georgiana Villiers (12 February 1799 – 16 March 1799)
*
George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon (27 January 1800 – 27 June 1870)
*
Thomas Hyde Villiers (24 January 1801 – 3 December 1832)
*Hon.
Charles Pelham Villiers (3 January 1802 – 16 January 1898)
*Lady
Maria Theresa Villiers (8 March 1803 – 9 November 1865). Married first novelist
Thomas Henry Lister
Thomas Henry Lister (1800 – 5 June 1842) was an English novelist and biographer, and served as Registrar General in the British civil service. He was an early exponent of the silver fork novel as a genre and also presaged "futuristic" writing ...
on 6 November 1830, they had a daughter, Alice Beatrice (d. 1863), who married
Algernon Borthwick, 1st Baron Glenesk. After her first husband's death, she married politician
Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 2nd Baronet on 25 October 1844.
*Frederick Adolphus Villiers (17 February 1805 – 21 November 1806)
*Hon. Edward Ernest Villiers (23 March 1806 – 30 October 1843) was educated at
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...
(where he was a
president of the United Debating Society) and
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...
, and was later a
Colonization Commissioner for South Australia.
He married Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell, daughter of
Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth, leaving a son and three daughters. Their daughter
Edith Villiers married
Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Edward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, (8 November 1831 – 24 November 1891), was an English statesman, Conservative politician and poet who used the pseudonym Owen Meredith. During his tenure as Viceroy of India between 1876 ...
and became
Lady of the Bedchamber
Lady of the Bedchamber is the title of a lady-in-waiting holding the official position of personal attendant on a British queen regnant or queen consort. The position is traditionally held by the wife of a peer. A lady of the bedchamber would gi ...
to both
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
and
Queen Alexandra
Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was List of British royal consorts, queen-consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 Januar ...
.
*Augustus Villiers (2 March 1808 – 24 March 1808)
*Hon.
Henry Montagu Villiers (4 January 1813 – 9 August 1861),
Bishop of Durham
The bishop of Durham is head of the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Paul Butler was the most recent bishop of Durham u ...
from 1860 to his death.
*Lt. Hon.
Augustus Algernon Villiers, RN (14 April 1817 – 13 July 1843), died unmarried,
Knight of Isabella the Catholic
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villiers, George
1759 births
1827 deaths
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Tory MPs (pre-1834)
George Villiers
Younger sons of earls
British MPs 1790–1796
British MPs 1796–1800
UK MPs 1801–1802
Hertfordshire Yeomanry officers