He was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster under William Ewart Gladstone between February and April 1886, when he broke with Gladstone over Irish Home Rule.
Originally, the Chancellor was the chief officer in the daily management of the Duchy of Lancaster and the County Palatine of Lancaster (a county palatine merged into the Crown in 1399), but that estate is now run by a deputy, leaving the Chancellor as a member of the Cabinet with little obligation in regard to the Chancellorship.
Sir Gilbert Gerard (1587-1670), a member for Middlesex, paymaster of the Parliamentary army and from 1648 to 1649 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
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William Waldegrave MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and subsequently Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Frank Pakenham, noted that "we are alleged to have treated internees in a manner reminiscent of the German concentration camps."
In 1805 he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster under his intimate friend William Pitt; in the latter year he was sent on a special and important mission to the emperors of Austria and Russia and the king of Prussia.
His son, the second Earl, held office under Lord Palmerston as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Lord Privy Seal.
Carlisle served under Lord Melbourne as Chief Secretary for Ireland between 1835 and 1841, under Lord John Russell as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests from 1846 to 1850 and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1850 to 1852 and under Lord Palmerston as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1855 to 1858 and again from 1859 to 1864.
In 1838 Thomas Moule noted ancestral family portraits at the Hall, particularly one of Sir Thomas Heneage, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to Queen Elizabeth.
Other members of the family include Sir Nicholas Lechmere, a Baron of the Exchequer during the reign of King William III and Member of Parliament for Bewdley, and his grandson Nicholas Lechmere, 1st Baron Lechmere, Solicitor-General, Attorney-General and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
He served in Nairobi and Warsaw before being seconded to the Cabinet Office 1971–74 as Assistant Private Secretary, then Private Secretary, to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Geoffrey Rippon then John Davies), who at that time had special responsibilities for the co-ordination of British policy towards the European Communities.
The fourth earl was a statesman, diplomat (architect of the Quadruple Alliance of 1834), Lord Privy Seal, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, President of the Board of Trade, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Knight of the Garter, Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury (1861–1947), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange (1716–1771), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Thomas Grey, 2nd Earl of Stamford (circa 1654–1720), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1709–1786), British peer, Postmaster General and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster