Prime Minister, 1782-3

William Petty was born William Fitzmaurice in Dublin and was brought up in Ireland. In 1751, his great uncle Henry Petty, first Earl of Shelburne, died, and as all his immediate family had predeceased him, his estates which included Loaks Manor, (now Wycombe Abbey) passed to his nephew John Fitzmaurice, (1706-61), the father of William, on condition that he took the name Petty. John was created the first Earl of Shelburne of the second creation in 1753 and Baron Wycombe in 1760. 

In 1755 William attended Christ Church College, Oxford for 2 years before joining the army. In 1757, during the Seven Years’ War, he served in the Raid on Rochefort and distinguished himself in the Battles of Minden (1759) and Kloster Kampen (1760). He was rewarded with promotion to colonel and aide-de-camp to the new King George III.

In 1761 William was elected to his father’s seat as MP for Chepping Wycombe but before he could take it up his father died, and he inherited his father’s titles which meant that he would now sit in the House of Lords.

On taking over Loaks Manor William found the farms ‘tenanted by beggars and bankrupts, out of repair, the great part unenclosed’ and immediately set about bringing order to the estate. He had the park enclosed and landscaped by Capability Brown with an artificial lake, grotto and waterfall. He also kept a menagerie which included a lion, beaver and orang-utan, which died in the intense cold of Christmas 1768.

In 1763 he was appointed President of the Board of Trade in Grenville’s Cabinet and from 1766-8 served as Southern Secretary in William Pitt’s Cabinet with responsibility for Ireland, the American Colonies and India, resigning at 31 with William Pitt, now Earl of Chatham, to spend the next 13 years in opposition.  

In 1765 he married Sophia Carteret (1745-1771) the daughter of the first Earl of Granville. They had two children: John Henry Petty, 2nd Marquis of Lansdowne (1765-1809) who was MP for Wycombe for 20 years and William Granville (1768-1778.) Lord Shelburne was devastated when his wife died aged 25. He commissioned Agostino Carlini, a Genoese sculptor, to produce a fine statue in memory of her with her two young sons, which can be seen in All Saints Parish Church in the South Chapel facing the Shelburne Memorial. 

His second marriage was to Louisa FitzPatrick, daughter of the 1st Earl of Upper Ossory in 1779. They had two children: Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne (1780-1863) and Louisa Fitzmaurice (1788-9).

Benjamin Franklin who was agent for four of the American Colonies in London, spent 6 days in 1772 as a guest at Loaks Manor.

In 1776 the American Colonies declared independence from Britain, but the King and his government were determined to hold on to the Colonies which brought about the American War of Independence. Lord Shelburne was sympathetic and looked for a way of keeping the Colonies within the Empire. 

However, the decisive defeat of the British army at Yorktown in 1781 made him ponder this position.

In 1780 he fought a duel against a Scottish MP who had taken offence about comments made by him in Parliament. Shelburne shot wide but only suffered a light wound in the groin.

Shelburne was appointed Secretary of State in Lord Rockingham’s second Administration in 1782 becoming the first British home secretary. On Rockingham’s death he became the first Irish born prime minister, at the age of 44, on 4 July 1782. He was PM until 26 March 1783 – 266 days. 

William Fitzmaurice Petty, Earl of Shelburne by Sir Joshua Reynolds (Image Courtesy of Wycombe Museum)

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As prime minister, liaising with Benjamin Franklin, now American Minister to France, agreement was finally achieved in 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris which formally recognised the United States as a sovereign nation. (Today there are five towns in New England and south-east Canada named Shelburne.)

Whilst serving in parliament Shelburne had never resigned his commission in the army and later, through a staff appointment, he was raised to the rank of army general. He is therefore one of only two men in Britain to attain the rank of general and become prime minister: the Duke of Wellington was the other. Shelburne and the Duke of Wellington also share another claim to fame – they are the only 2 Irish born prime minsters.

In 1784 Shelburne was created Marquis of Lansdowne. There is a grey plaque at the entrance of Wycombe Abbey which reads ‘William Petty, First Marquis of Lansdowne and better known as Lord Shelburne Prime Minister 1782-3 lived here 1761-98.’ 

Being heavily in debt, Lord Shelburne in 1798 sold Loaks Manor but retained his estate at Bowood in Wiltshire. He died aged 67 in Lansdowne House, Berkley Square, London on 7 May 1805 and was buried in the family vault beneath the Shelburne Memorial in the North Chapel of All Saints Parish Church, High Wycombe where his two wives and most of his family are buried. There is no wall or floor memorial to him (in his will he had asked to be buried “without any kind of pomp”). To the right there is a modern stained-glass window created by David Wasley in 1990 commemorating the roles of the Earl and Benjamin Franklin in concluding the Treaty of Paris. Both their images appear in the window.