Charles Watson-Wentworth was one of the most politically influential in the country, Rockingham was the leader of the “Rockingham Whigs” and the patron of Edmund Burke. He was the 9th and 13th Prime Minister of the country.
Background
Charles Watson-Wentworth was born on 13 May 1732. He was a wealthy scion of the influential Yorkshire family Wentworth. When his father died in December 1750, Rockingham inherited the family title and huge estates, at age 20. He was the eighth of ten children, and the fifth son; but his four brothers and two of his sisters had died young. Thus he inherited the family seat of Wentworth Wood- house (among other properties), which had not quite been completed, although his father had spent lavishly on its construction over more than twenty years. The largest private house in England, with a dominating east facade that was 600 feet long, it symbolized the Wentworth family’s status. The young heir, early in his public career, set up the Rockingham Club in York—the county seat and electoral center—in an attempt to translate the family’s social status into political influence. Such were his political connections that he was made a Knight of the Garter by George II in May 1760, though as yet he had held no political office and had shown his loyalty only in the capacity of Lord of the Bedchamber.
Career
Rockingham suffered in the “massacre of the Pelhamite innocents” of 1762 to 1763, being dismissed from his prestigious regional posts as lord lieutenant of the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire and as vice admiral ofYorkshire. He commanded a following of about 100 M.P.s, though, and came to occupy a more central position in politics during the short-lived premierships of Bute and Grenville. As Newcastle was unacceptable to the king, Rockingham seemed a logical choice to deliver a viable “old corps” ministry when Grenville was dismissed. George III at first wanted Grenville to be replaced by Pitt; but when Pitt refused, the Duke of Cumberland persuaded Rockingham to form a ministry in May 1765. Rockingham served as First Lord of the Treasury, and Newcastle took office as Lord Privy Seal.
In December 1779 Rockingham gave his authority, which was not in the event uniformly welcomed, to the cause of Christopher Wyvill’s reforming Yorkshire Association, by appearing in Castle Yard at York for their first meeting. In June 1789, Lord North tried to salvage his ministry by forming a coalition with Rockingham; but the Marquess refused to come aboard unless the king accepted the principle that independence could be granted to the North American colonists. In the end, the military disappointments of the war and the refusal of George III to countenance independence made North’s position untenable, and in late March 1782 he resigned to make way for an administration headed by Rockingham.
In poor health, Rockingham could neither heal the increasing divisions between his two secretaries of state, Shelburne and Fox, nor impose his party’s line on Shelburne’s substantial following.
He died on 1 July 1782. He was survived by his wife, who was not only his close companion but also his political adviser. As they had no children, Rockingham’s huge estates in Yorkshire and Ireland went to his sister Anne’s son William (Wentworth) Fitzwilliam, fourth Earl of Fitzwilliam. Rockingham was buried in great state in the choir of York Minster, at the heart of the county that had been his power base and had shaped his distinctive approach to politics
Politics
Rockingham began to be courted by the Duke of Newcastle, and aligned himself with the “old Whigs,” whom the new king, George III, was determined to oppose. As a county magnate with a strongly provincial power base, Rockingham was also inclined to distrust the court. He drew parliamentary support from both the Pelhamite “old corps” of aristocrats, seasoned in office and electioneering, and the “country” or “patriot” believers in purity and economy, by pressing for an end to place-holding M.P.s and patronage and secret spending. Both the Pelhamite and the Patriot traditions came together in the early years of the new reign, which was dominated by the influence of Lord Bute (the “Bute myth”).
The new government was severely hampered by Pitt’s hostility and refusal to cooperate in the important business of establishing policy toward America. Grenvilles 1765 Stamp Act had to be enforced, appraised, and ultimately (in March 1766) repealed. In February 1766, Rockingham had laid down five resolutions on American policy that subsequently failed to pass the House of Lords. The ministry began to fall apart in April 1766, after the resignation of the Duke of Grafton, whose post of secretary of state proved difficult to fill. Unable to recruit either the followers of Bute or those of Pitt, Rockingham found it difficult to hold together his coalition. In July 1766, George III dismissed Rockingham and called on Pitt (who in the following month became the Earl of Chatham) to form a new administration. A number of Rockingham’s Chathamite supporters stayed on, but Chatham treated them with disdain, and in November 1766 dismissed one of the most senior of them, Lord Edgecumbe, from his place as treasurer of the household.
Increasingly alienated from the royal court, Rockingham’s now smaller party saw themselves as the heirs of the old Whig principles and the defenders of the Glorious Revolution settlement. They believed that the constitution was endangered by the corruption of the royal court, and that “secret influences” and royal favoritism were undermining the political process and had to be opposed through reform and through the setting of high moral standards in public life. At the same time, they inherited from Newcastle and the Pelhamites the knowledge that success in politics came from acting in concert. Unlike others at the time, they did not decry party politics as mere factionalism, something to be avoided; they justified and even glorified it. Edmund Burke expressed the Rockinghamite view most forcibly, and in his Thoughts on the Present Discontents (1770) gave full justification of men in Parliament acting together to promote their joint beliefs. Men banded together in common belief and common principles, went the argument, have a duty to contend for office and place. In pursuit of long-term goals, supporters in Parliament might occasionally have to vote as the party dictates, even if they did not approve of the measure in question.
The Rockingham Whigs were selective in choosing their battles and were not a structured opposition of the modern kind; but every year, beginning in 1774, they forced a voting division on the parliamentary address in reply to the speech from the throne. They exerted opposition sparingly but with effect. With their numbers increasing from fewer than sixty members in 1766 to around ninety in 1782, the Rockinghamites were not an alternate ministry, but they were an effective pressure group, voting their party line with considerable discipline.
Personality
Despite his public significance, Rockingham was a painfully shy man who rarely spoke in the House of Lords, and he held no major political office other than the premiership.
Rockingham was not particularly active in Parliament after his resignation from office. He was a progressive agriculturist and had become greatly involved in the improvement of his estates. He also was passionately interested in horse racing. He did, though, consistently argue in Parliament for putting an early end to the American crisis by granting the colonists their independence; and he continuously supported the cause of “economical reform,” the purification of public finances.
Connections
He was married to Mary Bright, they had no children.