William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth

The Right Honourable The Earl of Dartmouth FRS PC
The Earl of Dartmouth (1777), by Nathaniel Hone
First Lord of Trade
In office 20 July 1765 – 16 August 1766
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	The Marquess of Rockingham
Preceded by	The Earl of Hillsborough
Succeeded by	The Earl of Hillsborough
Secretary of State for the Colonies and First Lord of Trade
In office 27 August 1772 – 10 November 1775
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	Lord North
Preceded by	The Earl of Hillsborough
Succeeded by	Lord George Germain
Personal details
Born	20 June 1731
Died	15 July 1801 (aged 70)
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Frances Nicoll (d. 1805)
Religion	Methodist

William Legge 2nd Earl of Dartmouth PC, FRS (20 June 1731 – 15 July 1801), styled as Viscount Lewisham from 1732 to 1750, was a British statesman who is most remembered for his part in the government before and during the American Revolution.

Background

Dartmouth was the son of George Legge, Viscount Lewisham (d. 1732), son of William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Arthur Kaye, 3rd Baronet. Having entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1748,^[1] he succeeded his grandfather in the earldom in 1750.

Portrait of William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, by Pompeo Batoni, 1752-56, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

Political career

Lord Dartmouth was Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1772 to 1775. It was Lord Dartmouth who, in 1764, at the suggestion of Thomas Haweis, recommended John Newton, the former slave trader and author of "Amazing Grace", to the Bishop of Chester, and was instrumental in his being accepted for the Anglican ministry.

In 1772, in correspondence with Sir William Johnson, the Superintendent of Northern Indian Affairs in America, he suggested there was no reasonable way the British Government could support new trade regulations with the Indians. He sympathised with Johnson's arguments but stated the Colonies did not seem inclined to concur with any new regulations.

Philanthropy

Lord Dartmouth was a large donor to and the leading trustee for the English trust that would finance the establishment of the Moor's Charity School, in Lebanon, Connecticut by Eleazar Wheelock to educate and convert the Indians. Wheelock subsequently founded Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, naming the school in Lord Dartmouth's honor in hopes of getting his financial support. Lord Dartmouth refused. In London, Lord Dartmouth supported the new Foundling Hospital, a charitable institution for the care and maintenance of London's abandoned children. He served as a vice president of the organization from 1755 until his death. The famous painter Sir Joshua Reynolds painted the Earl's portrait and donated it to the hospital. The portrait is still in the Foundling Hospital Collection and can be seen at the Foundling Museum in London. He was admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society on 7 November 1754.^[2]

Family

Lord Dartmouth married Frances Catherine, daughter of Sir Charles Gounter Nicoll, in 1755. Their younger sons Admiral the Hon. Sir Arthur Kaye Legge and the Right Reverend the Hon. Edward Legge, Bishop of Oxford, both gained distinction. Their daughter Charlotte married Charles Duncombe, 1st Baron Feversham.

He died at Blackheath, Kent, on 15 July 1801, in the seventy-first year of his age, and was buried in Trinity Church in the Minories on 3 August 1801.^[3] He was succeeded by his eldest son, George. Lady Dartmouth died in July 1805. The family lived at Sandwell Hall (since demolished) in the Sandwell Valley.

Bibliography

• R.H. Nichols and F A. Wray, The History of the Foundling Hospital (London: Oxford University Press, 1935).
• His role in Black Country Methodism is mentioned in David Hallam's book Eliza Asbury, the mother of Bishop Francis Asbury.

References

1. Hopkins, Clare (2005), Trinity: 450 years of an Oxford college community (2007 reprint ed.), Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-951896-8
2. "Lists of Royal Society Fellows". Retrieved 2006-12-15.
3. Barker 1892.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Barker, George Fisher Russell (1892). "Legge, William (1731-1801)". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

• Biography, Arms, and Motto