Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire

The Right Honourable
The Earl of Buckinghamshire
PC
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
In office
17 March 1801  12 May 1804
Monarch George III
Prime Minister Henry Addington
Preceded by New office
Succeeded by The Earl Camden
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
23 June  23 August 1812
Monarch George III
Prime Minister The Earl of Liverpool
Preceded by Spencer Perceval
Succeeded by Charles Bathurst
Personal details
Born 6 May 1760 (1760-05-06)
Hampden House, Great Hampden
Died 4 February 1816 (1816-02-05) (aged 55)
Hamilton Place, London
Nationality British
Political party Tory
Spouse(s) (1) Margaretta Bourke
(d. 1796)
(2) Hon. Eleanor Eden
(1777-1851)
Alma mater None

Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire PC (6 May 1760  4 February 1816), styled Lord Hobart from 1793 to 1804, was a British Tory politician of the late 18th and early 19th century.

Life

Buckinghamshire was born at Hampden House, the son of George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire and Albinia, daughter of Lord Vere Bertie, younger son of Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. He was educated at Westminster School, London and later served in the American Revolutionary War. He acted as aide-de-camp to successive lord lieutenants of Ireland from 1784 onwards.[1]

Political career

Buckinghamshire was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Irish House of Commons for Portarlington from 1784 to 1790 and thereafter for Armagh Borough from 1790 to 1797. He sat also in the British House of Commons for the rotten borough of Bramber in 1788, a seat he held until 1790, and then for Lincoln from 1790 to 1796. In 1793 he was invested a member of the Privy Council, and appointed Governor of Madras. In 1798 he was recalled to England by the President of the Board of Control responsible for Indian affairs, Henry Dundas[2] and summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father’s junior title of Baron Hobart. He later served as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1801 to 1804 when it was said he had "a better grasp of the local or colonial conditions, and a more active spirit than did some of his successors."[1] He was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1805 and again in 1812, Postmaster General from 1806 to 1807 and President of the Board of Control from 1812 to 1816. Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, is named after Lord Buckinghamshire.

Family

Eleanor Agnes, Countess of Buckinghamshire, by John Hoppner

Lord Buckinghamshire married firstly Margaretta, daughter of Edmund Bourke, in 1792. They had one son (who died in infancy) and a daughter, Lady Sarah, who married Prime Minister Lord Goderich and was the mother of George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon. After Margaretta's death in 1796 he married secondly the Hon. Eleanor Agnes, daughter of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, in 1799. There were no children from this marriage. Lord Buckinghamshire died in February 1816 at the age of 55, after a fall from his horse. He was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew, George. Lady Buckinghamshire died in October 1851, aged 74.

References

  1. 1 2 "Hobart, Robert (1760–1816)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  2. Severn, John Kenneth (2007). Architects of Empire: The Duke of Wellington and His Brothers. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-8061-3810-7.

External links

Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by
John Scott
Thomas Kelly
Member of Parliament for Portarlington
1784 1790
With: Sir Boyle Roche, 1st Bt
Succeeded by
Richard Cavendish
William Browne
Preceded by
George Rawson
Henry Duquery
Member of Parliament for Armagh Borough
1790 1797
With: George Rawson 1790–1796
Sackville Hamilton 1796–1797
Succeeded by
Sackville Hamilton
Hon. Thomas Pelham
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Sir Henry Gough-Calthorpe, Bt
Daniel Pulteney
Member of Parliament for Bramber
1788 – 1790
With: Sir Henry Gough-Calthorpe, Bt
Succeeded by
Sir Henry Gough-Calthorpe, Bt
Thomas Coxhead
Preceded by
John Fenton-Cawthorne
Richard Lumley-Saunderson
Member of Parliament for Lincoln
1790 1796
With: John Fenton-Cawthorne 1790–1796
George Rawdon 1796
Succeeded by
George Rawdon
Richard Ellison
Political offices
Preceded by
Alleyne FitzHerbert
Chief Secretary for Ireland
1789–1793
Succeeded by
Sylvester Douglas
Preceded by
Henry Dundas
as Secretary of State for War
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
1801–1804
Succeeded by
The Earl Camden
Preceded by
The Lord Mulgrave
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1805
Succeeded by
The Lord Harrowby
Preceded by
Spencer Perceval
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1812
Succeeded by
Charles Bathurst
Preceded by
The Viscount Melville
President of the Board of Control
1812–1816
Succeeded by
George Canning
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by
George Hobart
Earl of Buckinghamshire
1804–1816
Succeeded by
George Hobart-Hampden
Baron Hobart
(writ of acceleration)

1798–1816
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