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12 unusual facts about William Pitt the Younger


Habeas Corpus Suspension Act 1794

The next day another radical, John Thelwall, was arrested and the Prime Minister, William Pitt, appointed a Secret Committee of the House of Commons to examine the confiscated papers of the London Societies.

Henry Swinburne

In February 1785 William Pitt offered half that sum for it, and on receiving a refusal passed through parliament a bill to impose heavy taxation upon the unproductive lands in all the West Indian islands.

James Parkinson

Parkinson was a strong advocate for the under-privileged, and an outspoken critic of the Pitt-government.

John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare

FitzGibbon opposed the Irish Catholic Relief Act of 1793 personally, but apparently recommended its acceptance (Although he opposed the act personally he recommended its acceptance in the House of Lords) of 1793, being forced out of necessity when that Act had been recommended to the Irish Executive by the British Cabinet led by William Pitt the Younger.

Supposedly, upon being informed during a debate in the Irish Parliament that innocent as well as guilty were suffering atrocities during the repression, FitzGibbon replied "Well suppose it were so..", his callous reply purportedly shocking William Pitt.

Le congrès des rois

Participants include the kings of England, Spain, Sardinia, and Naples, the Austrian emperor, and the English minister Pitt.

Pittwater High School

The waterway was surveyed by crew members of HMS Sirius in 1788, and named Pitt Water after British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.

Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry

Under threat of invasion by the French Revolutionary government from 1793, and with insufficient military forces to repulse such an attack, the British government under William Pitt the Younger decided in 1794 to increase the Militia and to form corps of volunteers for the defence of the country.

Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry

In March 1794 the government of William Pitt the Younger passed the Volunteer Act in response to the threat of invasion by French revolutionary forces.

Teston

He was a friend of Charles Middleton, William Pitt and William Wilberforce and he worked with them for the abolition of slavery.

Thomas Bedingfeld

In person he is said to have resembled his celebrated contemporary, William Pitt, so much as sometimes to have been mistaken for him by the London populace.

William Cathcart, 1st Earl Cathcart

From 1803 to 1805 Lord Cathcart was commander-in-chief in Ireland, and in the latter year he was sent by Pitt to supersede Sir George Don in command of the 14,000 strong British expedition to Hanover.


1787 in the United States

The town is named Pittsborough (later shortened to Pittsboro) for William Pitt the Younger.

Charles Whitworth, 1st Earl Whitworth

Whitworth was well received by Catherine II, who was then at war with Turkey, but the harmony between the two countries was disturbed during the winter of 1790–1 by William Pitt's subscription to the view of the Prussian government that the three allies – England, Prussia, and Holland — could not with impunity allow the balance of power in Eastern Europe to be disturbed.

Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby

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.

George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham

He was appointed a Secretary of State when the younger Pitt (who was his first cousin, being his father's sister's son) formed his Ministry in December 1783, but resigned only three days later.

John Thelwall

In 1795, after prime minister William Pitt the Younger's Gagging Acts (the Treason Act and Seditious Meetings Act) received royal assent, Thelwall's lectures had a shift in theme, from contemporary political comment to the history of Rome in order to dodge censorship.

Luke Hansard

The promptitude and accuracy with which Hansard printed parliamentary papers were often of the greatest service to government—notably on one occasion when the proof-sheets of the report of the Secret Committee on the French Revolution were submitted to Pitt twenty-four hours after the draft had left his hands.

Milkman joke

In the Blackadder the Third episode "Dish and Dishonesty," Blackadder mockingly asks if William Pitt the Younger's little brother is called "Pitt the Toddler," "Pitt the Embryo," or "Pitt the Glint in the Milkman's Eye."

Sir John Hippisley, 1st Baronet

In 1792 Hippisley returned to Italy and remained there until 1795, during which time he served as a semi-official representative of the British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger at the Court of Pope Pius VI.

Viscount Sidmouth

However, Addington refused the honour and chose to remain in the House of Commons until 1805, when he joined William Pitt the Younger's government as Lord President of the Council with the lesser title of Viscount Sidmouth.

Walmer

Famous Lords Warden have included Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Sir Winston Churchill, William Pitt the Younger (whose niece Lady Hester Stanhope first created the gardens), and the Duke of Wellington (of the Battle of Waterloo fame).