William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham was a British statesman of the Whig group, who led Britain during the Seven Years' War and advocated a less strident policy towards the American colonies. He was the one, whose political actions secured the transformation of his country into an imperial power.
Background
William Pitt was born on November 15, 1708 at Westminster, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom, to to Robert Pitt and Harriet Villiers Pitt. His mother, Lady Harriet Villiers, daughter of Viscount Grandison, belonged to the Anglo-Irish nobility; his father, Robert Pitt, member of Parliament, was the son of Thomas (“Diamond”) Pitt, governor of the East India Company’s “factory” at Madras (now Chennai), India, where he made a vast fortune and secured one of the world’s largest diamonds (sold in 1717 to the regent of France). His father's and grandfather's service in India established the family fortune and a place in British politics.
Education
Young William attended Eton College before going on to Trinity College, Oxford, and then attended the University of Utrecht in the Dutch Republic. In January 1727 William Pitt Chatham was entered as a gentleman commoner at Trinity College, Oxford, but left after a year without taking a degree. He then spent several months at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, probably studying law.
In 1735 he entered Parliament. Pitt immediately showed himself to be a violent opponent of Sir Robert Walpole. His opposition to Hanoverian policy also lost him the favor of George II, a factor which prevented his obtaining office after Walpole's fall in 1742.
In 1746 Pitt was appointed paymaster general, but this office carried little political influence. In September 1755 he gained admission to the Cabinet and dominated the great debate (November 13-14) on the war with France.
In December 1756 Pitt became secretary of state under the nominal leadership of the Duke of Devonshire; this ministry was replaced in July 1757 by a coalition between Pitt and Lord Newcastle. They worked well together and were responsible for England's victories in the Seven Years War.
But as George II grew older, Pitt's position became less secure. His alliance with Lord Bute and the Prince of Wales failed when Pitt adopted the policy of a Continental war. George III, who became king in 1760, opposed Pitt but could not begin his reign by dismissing the minister who had led Britain to victory. Instead, he tried to separate Newcastle from Pitt and, with Newcastle's compliance, secured Bute's admittance to office as secretary of state.
In September 1761 Pitt, now isolated in the Cabinet, resigned over the conduct of the war. Yet he remained the key figure in the Commons, and much of the confusion in politics during the next 5 years resulted from his unpredictable conduct.
Between 1762 and 1764 Pitt, who was ill with gout, attended Parliament infrequently, leaving the opposition disjointed and leaderless. He declined to take office on the dismissal of the Grenvilles in 1765 and again in January 1766, when he was also asked for his opinion "on the present state of America. "
His health prevented him from assuming regularly the leadership of the Commons. Deprived by his aloofness and arrogance of loyal and reliable colleagues, he had to fall back on lazy and inexperienced ministers. When, early in 1767, illness prevented Chatham from attending the Cabinet and Parliament, he had no reliable deputy to weld his diversified Cabinet into a team. Finally, in the spring of 1767, he succumbed to an attack of manic depression, and for over 2 years he played virtually no part in politics.
The last 10 years of Chatham's life were anticlimactic. He returned to politics in 1769, but he had few followers and was as difficult to work with as ever. In 1771, no longer a political force, he practically ceased to attend Parliament. The outbreak of the American war reawakened something of his old vigor, and he fought to preserve the colonies for Britain. While speaking in Parliament on this subject, he fell ill and died a month later on May 11, 1778. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Achievements
He was one of the most striking political figures of the 18th century. Pitt, the “Great Commoner,” was known and feared throughout the world. This resolute and concerted policy was too much for Bourbon France, and, by the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Great Britain remained supreme in North America and India, held Minorca as a Mediterranean base, and won territory in Africa and the West Indies.
He served as war minister under George II and led Britain to victory over the French. Pitt, the first real Imperialist in modern English history, was the directing mind in the expansion of his country, and with him the beginning of empire is rightly associated. The Seven Years' War might well, moreover, have been another Thirty Years' War if not Pitt.
Politics
In 1735 he entered Parliament. Pitt immediately showed himself to be a violent opponent of Sir Robert Walpole. His opposition to Hanoverian policy also lost him the favor of George II, a factor which prevented his obtaining office after Walpole's fall in 1742.
Pitt joined the Patriots, which was a faction of discontented Whigs, who formed part of the opposition. The leader of this group was Lord Cobham. They gathered at Stowe House, the Lord Cobham`s country estate. Cobham had originally been a supporter of the government under Sir Robert Walpole, but a dispute over the controversial Excise Bill of 1733 had seen them join the opposition. Pitt swiftly became one of the faction's most prominent members.
Views
Pitt determined that it should be in every sense a national war and a war at sea. He revived the militia, reequipped and reorganized the navy, and sought to unite all parties and public opinion behind a coherent and intelligible war policy. He seized upon America and India as the main objects of British strategy: he sent his main expeditions to America, to ensure the conquest of Canada, and supported the East India Company and its “heaven-born general,” Robert Clive, in their struggle against the French East India Company.
He subsidized and reinforced the armies of Frederick the Great of Prussia to engage the French on the Continent, while the British Navy harassed the French on their own coasts, in the West Indies, and in Africa. Choosing good generals and admirals, he inspired them with a new spirit of dash and enterprise. His hand, eye, and voice were everywhere.
Quotations:
“If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms—never! never! never!”
Pitt delivered his views on America during a debate on January 14: "It is my opinion that this kingdom has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies. At the same time I assert the authority of this kingdom over the colonies to be sovereign and supreme in every circumstance of government and legislation whatsoever. "
The popular demand for Pitt became irresistible, and he declared, “I am sure I can save this country, and nobody else can.”
In the speech against the Convention in the House of Commons on 8 March 1739 Pitt said:
"When trade is at stake, it is your last entrenchment; you must defend it, or perish ... Sir, Spain knows the consequence of a war in America; whoever gains, it must prove fatal to her ... is this any longer a nation? Is this any longer an English Parliament, if with more ships in your harbours than in all the navies of Europe; with above two millions of people in your American colonies, you will bear to hear of the expediency of receiving from Spain an insecure, unsatisfactory, dishonourable Convention?"
Personality
Probably the most marked trait in Pitt's character was his aloofness. He was a solitary man. Intensely ambitious, conscious of his power in the Commons, and impatient in his secondary role, Pitt aimed at supreme power. Politically his isolation meant that he was not a party man and worked badly in a team. In the Commons his aggression and commanding presence compelled attention.
Pitt also had great courage - a rare quality in 18th-century statesmen. He was not afraid to assume responsibility for war with the French, provided he was given full powers.
He displayed a commanding manner, brilliant rhetoric, and sharp debating skills that cleverly utilised broad literary and historical knowledge.
Physical Characteristics:
Pitt’s lean, tall, commanding figure, combined with a Roman beaky nose and hawklike eyes—large and gray but turning black when he was roused—overwhelmed all onlookers.
Quotes from others about the person
According to his nephew, William Pitt the Elder "lived and died without a friend. "
A contemporary wrote, "He was tall in his person with the eye of a hawk, a little head, thin face, long aquiline nose, and perfectly erect. "
This high esteem approached to idolatry according to historian Clinton Rossiter:
In the last decade of the colonial period the ideal of the man of public virtue was made real in the person of William Pitt. The cult of this noblest of Whigs, "the Genius of England and the Comet of his Age" was well advanced toward idolatry at least five years before the Stamp Act. The greatest of "the great men of England", the last and noblest of the Romans, was considered the embodiment of virtue, wisdom, patriotism, liberty, and temperance ... Pitt, "glorious and immortal", the "guardian of America", was the idol of the colonies ... A Son of Liberty in Bristol County, Massachusetts, paid him the ultimate tribute of identification with English liberty: "Our toast in general is,—Magna Charta, the British Constitution,—PITT and Liberty forever!"
Horace Walpole, not an uncritical admirer, wrote of Pitt:
"It were ingratitude to him to say that he did not give such a reverberation to our stagnating councils, as exceedingly altered the appearance of our fortune. He warded off the evil hour that seemed approaching, he infused vigour into our arms, he taught the nation to speak again as England used to speak to foreign powers ... Pitt, on entering upon administration, had found the nation at the lowest ebb in point of power and reputation ... France, who meant to be feared, was feared heartily ... They were willing to trust that France would be so good as to ruin us by inches. Pitt had roused us from this ignoble lethargy ... The admirers of Mr Pitt extol the reverberation he gave to our councils, the despondence he banished, the spirit he infused, the conquests he made, the security he affixed to our trade and plantations, the humiliation of France, the glory of Britain carried under his administration to a pitch at which it never had arrived—and all this is exactly true."
Interests
Writers
His favourite poet was Virgil, and he never forgot the patriotic lessons of Roman history; he constantly read Cicero, the golden-tongued orator who could yet lash offenders with his indignation.
Connections
In October 1754, Pitt married Lady Hester Grenville (1720–1803), daughter of the 1st Countess Temple, who was 23 years his junior. Attractive and intelligent, Hester proved a good match for Pitt, and she loved him deeply. The couple had five children—three sons and two daughters. William Pitt, the Younger, was their second son.
Father:
Robert Pitt
1680–1727
Mother:
Harriet Villiers
She was a daughter of Viscount Grandison, belonged to the Anglo-Irish nobility.
Sister:
Catherine Pitt
Sister:
Ann Pitt
Sister:
Elizabeth Pitt
Sister:
Harriet Pitt
Wife:
Harriot Fitzgerald Villiers Pitt
Grandfather:
Thomas Pitt
1653–1726
Daughter:
Hester Stanhope, Viscountess Mahon
1755–1780, she was the oldest child of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham and Lady Hester Pitt (nee Grenville).
Married Charles Stanhope, Lord Mahon on 19 Dec 1774.
She died five months after giving birth to their third child, and is buried in the Underground Vault beneath the Stanhope Chantry at St. Botolph's in Chevening.
Daughter:
Harriot Pitt Eliot
Harriot was the second daughter of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and his wife Lady Hester Grenville. Her older brother was William Pitt the Younger.
She was buried in Westminster Abbey, on 2 October 1786, in her parents' family vault in the North Transept.
