The Tea Act (1773)
Helped the East India Company sell tea in America, provoking the Boston Tea Party
Prime Ministers · 18th century
Lord North
1732–1792 · English
Tory
In office: 1770–1782
Frederick North, known as Lord North and from 1790 the 2nd Earl of Guilford, was Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782 and is remembered above all as the man who lost the American colonies. His Tea Act and Coercive Acts fed the crisis that became the American War of Independence, and he resigned after the defeat at Yorktown. An able parliamentarian, he later returned to office in the Fox–North coalition.
How to spot them
- ▸Tea Act 1773, Boston Tea Party, Coercive (Intolerable) Acts 1774
- ▸Prime Minister who lost America; 'Oh God, it is all over!' after Yorktown
- ▸Gordon Riots 1780; Regulating Act 1773; Royal Marriages Act 1772
- ▸Later the Fox–North coalition; became Earl of Guilford; went blind
In office
The Coercive (Intolerable) Acts (1774)
Closed the port of Boston and curtailed self-government in Massachusetts
The Quebec Act (1774)
Tolerated Catholicism in Quebec and extended its borders, angering the Thirteen Colonies
'Oh God, it is all over!' on hearing of Yorktown (1781)
His reported reaction to Cornwallis's surrender
The Regulating Act for the East India Company (1773)
Created the post of Governor-General of Bengal, first held by Warren Hastings
The Gordon Riots (1780)
Anti-Catholic rioting in London, led by Lord George Gordon
The Royal Marriages Act (1772)
Required descendants of George II to obtain the sovereign's consent to marry
Quick-fire facts
- •Sat in the Commons despite his title, since 'Lord North' was a courtesy title as the heir of the Earl of Guilford
- •Succeeded as 2nd Earl of Guilford in 1790
- •Resigned in March 1782 in the face of a threatened motion of no confidence
- •The Falkland Islands crisis with Spain (1770–71) was resolved early in his premiership
- •Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1772
- •Went blind in his last years
- •Home Secretary in the Fox–North coalition of 1783 under the Duke of Portland
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- GOV.UK — Past Prime Ministers: Lord Frederick North
- Oxford University Press — Oxford Dictionary of National Biography