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Portrait of Marquess of Rockingham

Prime Ministers · 18th century

Marquess of Rockingham

1730–1782 · English

Whig

In office: 1765–1766; 1782

Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, led the 'Rockingham Whigs' and was twice Prime Minister. His first ministry repealed the Stamp Act while asserting Parliament's authority through the Declaratory Act; his second, in 1782, conceded Irish legislative independence and began peace moves with America, but he died in office after only 14 weeks. Edmund Burke was his secretary and chief ideologue.

How to spot them

  • ▸Repeal of the Stamp Act and the Declaratory Act (1766)
  • ▸Leader of the Rockingham Whigs; patron of Edmund Burke
  • ▸Died in office in July 1782
  • ▸Wentworth Woodhouse; commissioned Stubbs's Whistlejacket

In office

Repeal of the Stamp Act (1766)

Withdrew Grenville's hated colonial tax

The Declaratory Act (1766)

Passed alongside the repeal, asserting Parliament's right to legislate for America 'in all cases whatsoever'

Edmund Burke appointed as his private secretary (1765)

Burke became the leading thinker of his party

Irish legislative independence ('Constitution of 1782') (1782)

Repeal of the Declaratory Act of 1719 freed the Irish Parliament from Westminster's control

Economical reform: Crewe's Act and Clerke's Act (1782)

Barred revenue officers from voting and government contractors from sitting in the Commons

Stubbs's life-size horse portrait Whistlejacket (c. 1762)

Commissioned by him; now in the National Gallery, London

Quick-fire facts

  • •Died in office on 1 July 1782 at Wimbledon, during an influenza epidemic
  • •His seat, Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham, has one of the longest facades of any country house in England
  • •A keen racing man, closely associated with Doncaster races
  • •Spent the long years between his two ministries in opposition, critical of policy towards America
  • •Charles James Fox served as Foreign Secretary in his second ministry

Drill it — 6 cards

1 / 6new card

Sources