471 



SHELBURNE, EARL OP. 



SHELDON, GILBERT. 



472 



Shelburne, who put an end to them by refusing to entertain any other 

 terms than that " Chatham mubt be dictator." On the death of Chat- 

 ham, Shelburne joined with Rockingham, consenting* to waive on his 

 behalf, in case of office being offered to them, bis title to the premier- 

 ship. His opposition to Lord North increased in activity as the 

 policy of the latter proved more and more unsuccessful, and Shelburne 

 himself became proportionately popular. A duel which he fought 

 with Colonel Fullerton (March 22, 1780), in consequence of a challenge 

 for some reflections he made in a speech in the House of Lords, and 

 in which he was wounded, was by some of the 'Corresponding 

 Committees ' suggested to have arisen from his being singled out for 

 vengeance by the government retainers. Oue of the weapons which 

 he at this time used with success against the ministry was a bill which 

 he brought forward for Economical Reform, but the conduct of the 

 American war continued to be the leading topic ; and at length on the 

 crowning news of the surrender of Cornwallis so strong was the excite- 

 ment throughout the country that Lord North was compelled to 

 succumb (March 20, 1782), and Lord Rockingham became his successor, 

 with Lord Shelburne and Charles James Fox as secretaries of state. 

 Tnis ministry, on the whole a liberal and popular one, lasted little 

 over three months', Rockingham's death, July 1, 1782, being the 

 immediate cause of its dissolution ; though it is certain that the 

 mutual ill-feeling and jealousy must if Rockingbam had lived have 

 shortly 1-d to its remodification or overthrow. As it was, Fox and his 

 friends insisted on the Duke of Portland being made premier, but the 

 king, who had now come to place great confidence in Lord Shelburne, 

 entrusted him with the formation of a new ministry, and Fox and his 

 followers seceded in a body. [Fox, CHARLES JAMES.] 



Shelburne on the other hand took an early opportunity of stating 

 in the house of peers his continued adherence to "all those constitu- 

 tional ideas which for seven years he had imbibed from his master in 

 politics, the late Earl of Chatham," and he expressed his determination 

 not to yield to the dictation of family : " that noble earl always 

 declared'that the country ought not to be governed by any oligarchical 

 party or family connection ; and that if it was to be so governed, the 

 constitution must of necessity expire. On these principles I have 

 always acted." It was no doubt his assertion of these principles that 

 obtained him the support of the king, who had for some time been 

 labouring perseveriugly to break the domination of the great aris- 

 tocratic families. The most important of the appointments in the 

 new ministry was that of William Pitt, then only in his twenty- 

 fourth year, to a seat in the cabinet and the office of chancellor of the 

 exchequer. 



Shelburne's ministry lasted little over seven months, when it was 

 defeated by the vote of the celebrated Fox and North coalition 

 (February 21, 1783), but during those months had occurred the 

 triumphant termination of the famous siege of Gibraltar, and the 

 successes of Howe and Rodney, which had enabled the government to 

 dictate honourable terms with France, Spain, and Holland ; Shelburne 

 had also concluded separate preliminaries of peace with America ; and 

 the result was a general pacification in which the Independence of the 

 United States of North America was acknowledged by the British 

 government, but the ratification of this, the crowning act of his 

 administration, he was obliged to leave to his successors. 



Shelburne did not again accept office. To his younger and greater 

 colleague [PlTT, WILLIAM] was left the future direction of the party 

 which had been built up, Shelburne himself and his personal followers 

 giving to Pitt a steady and useful support. He was created Marquis 

 of Lansdowne in 1784, soon after Pitt's accession to office. He did not 

 again occupy any prominent place in public affairs, and for many years 

 before his death he had almost wholly withdrawn into private life. His 

 health was feeble, and he felt neither strength nor inclination again to 

 etiter upon the turmoil of party politics. He was strongly averse to 

 commencing the war with revolutionary France, but the course of events 

 in that country produced a very painful impression on his mind, and 

 strengthened his desire for retirement. He came forward however as 

 a warm supporter of the union with Ireland, counselling at the same 

 time liberality in dealing with that country, and he shared with Pitt 

 in his disappointment at the non-fulfilment of the implied engage- 

 ments. [PiTT, WILLIAM.] He died on the 2nd of May 1805. 



Lord Shelburne was twice married : first, on the 3rd of February 

 1765, to Lady Sophia Carteret, daughter of the Earl of Granville, by 

 whom he had two sons, John Henry, who succeeded him as second 

 Marquis of Lansdowue, and another who died young ; and, secondly, 

 July 19, 1779, to Lady Louisa Fitzpatrick, daughter of John, earl of 

 Upper Ossory, by whom he had likewise two children, a daughter who 

 died young, and a son who still survives, and who succeeded his 

 brother as the third Marquis of Lansdowne. [LANSDOWNE, HENRY 

 PLCTTY, MARQUIS OF.] The Earl of Shelburue was not a great states- 

 man, but he was a highly-cultivated and well-informed one, liberal in 

 his general views, and possessing a wider acquaintance with foreign 

 affairs and sounder commercial principles than most of the political 

 men of his time. He wa* moreover an able debater, assiduous in his 

 attention to business, and there can be now little doubt honest in 

 purpose, and less swayed than many of his eminent contemporaries 

 by mere party motives : but he was proud, unaccommodating, and 

 wanting in frankness ; so that, while he made many enemies by his 

 assumption, he failed to secure a character for sincerity, earnestness, 



or firmness. lu private life he was highly esteemed. He was the 

 friend of men of talent and genius, and his love of letters led him to 

 form one of the noblest libraries which had ever been collected in 

 England by a private individual. It was in his library that his last 

 years were chiefly spent, thouh he continued to superintend personally 

 as much as possible his extensive estates. On his death his collection 

 of printed books was dispersed by auction ; but his manuscripts were 

 purchased for the British Museum, a parliamentary grant of 49251. 

 being voted for the purpose. 



SHELDON, GILBERT, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born on 

 the 19th of July 1598, at Staunton in Staffordshire. He received the 

 name of Gilbert from his godfather Gilbert, earl of Shrewsbury, to 

 whom his father Rog?r Sheldon was then a menial servant, although 

 descended from an ancient Staffordshire family. In the latter end of 

 the year 1613 he was admitted into Trinity College, Oxford ; on the 

 27th of November 1617 he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and 

 that of Master on the 28th of May 1620. He was elected fellow of 

 All Souls College in 1622; and about the same time taking holy 

 orders, he became afterwards domestic chaplain to Thomas, lord 

 Coventry, keeper of the great seal, who gave him a prebend of 

 Gloucester, and finding him to be a man of parts, recommended him 

 to King Charles I. as a person well versed in political affairs. On the 

 2nd of May 1633 he was presented by his majesty to the vicarage of 

 Hackney in Middlesex. He was also rector of Ickford in Buckingham- 

 shire, and Archbishop Laud gave him the rectory of Newington in 

 Oxfordshire. Having proceeded Bachelor of Divinity, on the llth of 

 November 1628, he took the degree of Doctor in Divinity on the 25th 

 of June 1634. 



In March 1635 Sheldon was elected warden of All-Souls College ; 

 and being esteemed a learned man, he was appointed chaplain in 

 ordinary to the king ; he became afterwards clerk of his closet, and 

 was designed by him to be made master of the Savoy Hospital and 

 dean of Westminster, but the civil wars which ensued prevented those 

 promotions. During these he adhered firmly to the king, and was 

 one of the chaplains whom his majesty sent for to attend his com- 

 missioners at the treaty of Uxbridge, in February 1644, where he 

 argued so earnestly in favour of the Church of England as to draw 

 upon him the resentment of the Parliamentarians, which they made 

 him afterwards sufficiently feel. He attended the king at Oxford, and 

 was witness to the following remarkable vow made there by his 

 majesty, which was preserved by Archbishop Sheldon thirteen years 

 underground, and first published by Echard, in the Appendix to his 

 ' History of England,' p. 5 . " I do hereby promise and solemnly 

 vow, in the presence and for the service of Almighty God, that if it 

 shall please the Divine Majesty, of His infinite goodness to restore me 

 to my just kingly rights, and to re-establish me in my throne, I will 

 wholly give back to his church all those impropriations which are now 

 held by the crown, and what lands soever I do now or should enjoy, 

 which have been taken away either from any episcopal see or any 

 cathedral or collegiate church, from any abbey or other religious 

 house. I likewise promise for hereafter to hold them from the church, 

 under such reasonable fines and rents as shall be set down by some 

 conscientious persons, whom I propose to choose with all uprightness 

 of heart to direct ma in this particular. And I most humbly beseech 

 God to accept of this my vow, and to bless me in the design I have 

 now in hand ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ainen. Charles R., 

 Oxford, April 13, 1646." 



He also attended, in 1647, as one of his majesty's chaplains at New- 

 market and other places. On the 30th of March he was ejected from 

 his wardenship of All-Souls College by the parliamentary visitors, who 

 forcibly took possession of his lodgings on the 13th of April, and 

 imprisoned him, with Dr. Hammond, in Oxford and elsewhere. He 

 remained confined above six months, and then the Reforming Com- 

 mittee set him at liberty, October 24, 1648, upon condition that he 

 should never come within five miles of Oxford, that he should not go 

 to the king in the Isle of Wight, and that he should give security to 

 appear before them at fourteen days' warning whenever cited. Upon 

 his release he retired to Snelston in Derbyshire, and lived among his 

 other friends in Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire, whence, from his 

 own purse, and from collections made by him amongst the royalists, 

 he sent constant supplies of money to King Charles II. auroad, 

 and followed his studies and devotions until the approach of the 

 Restoration. 



Upon the death of Dr. Palmer (March 4, 1659-60), he became again 

 warden of All-Souls, without however taking possession, and continued 

 so till the January following. On King Charles Il.'s return, he met 

 his majesty at Canterbury, and was soon after made dean of the 

 Chapel Royal ; he was also, upon Bishop Juxon's translation to Can- 

 terbury, advanced in his room to the bishopric of London, and conse- 

 crated on the 28th of October 1660. He likewise obtained the master- 

 ship of the Savoy, which ho kept till 1663 ; and it was at his lodgings 

 there that, in 1661, the famous conference was held between some of 

 the Episcopal clergy and Presbyterian divines concerning alterations 

 to be made in the Liturgy, which thence came to be distinguished by 

 the name of the 'Savoy Conference.' His conduct there and after- 

 wards is much blamed by the Presbyterians, and it certainly appears 

 to have been anything but conciliating. As accounting for, though it 

 will not excuse any unnecessary severity that he may have exercised 



