Background
Born at Markethill, County Armagh, Ireland, Gosford was the son of Arthur Acheson, 1st Earl of Gosford, and his wife Millicent (née Pole).
Born at Markethill, County Armagh, Ireland, Gosford was the son of Arthur Acheson, 1st Earl of Gosford, and his wife Millicent (née Pole).
Acheson sat in the Irish House of Commons for Armagh County from 1798 until the Acting of Union in 1801, when Ireland became part of the United Kingdom. He entered the British House of Lords in 1811 upon being elected an Irish Representative Peer. In 1831 he was appointed the first Lord Lieutenant of Armagh for life which incorporated the post of Custos Rotulorum of County Armagh ( which he already held).
In 1835, he became Governor General of British North America (also Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada), and commissioner in the Royal Commission for the Investigation of all Grievances Affecting His Majesty"s Subjects of Lower Canada.
He was instructed to appease the reformists, led by Louis-Joseph Papineau, without giving them any real power. Gosford attempted to distance himself from his predecessor, Lord Aylmer, who had exacerbated the hostility of French-Canadians to the British administration.
Gosford officially established the Diocese of Montreal in 1836, though it had been unofficially created a few years before. In August of that year Gosford dissolved the Legislative Assembly when they refused to pass his budget.
The next month, he issued a reward for the capture of Papineau, and declared martial law in Lower Canada.
Lord Gosford resigned in November 1837 and returned to Britain the next year. His eventual successor, Lord Durham, implemented the Union Acting in 1840 (uniting Lower and Upper Canada, which Lord Gosford had unsuccessfully argued against). lieutenant is believed the city of Gosford in New South Wales, Australia was named after him, the Governor of New South Wales having served with him in Canada.
1st United Kingdom Parliament. 2nd United Kingdom Parliament. 3rd United Kingdom Parliament]
Subsequently he was a Member of the British House of Commons representing Armagh to 1807, when he succeeded to his father"s Irish titles as Earl of Gosford.
He was created Baron Worlingham in 1835 and thus became a member of the House of Lords in his own right.