George Villiers (1759 - 1827)
Encyclopedia
George Villiers styled The Honourable, was a British courtier and politician. The youngest son of the diplomat Lord Hyde
(later Earl of Clarendon), he was an intimate of Princess Amelia
and personal supporter of her father, George III
. His favour within the Royal Family and his father's influence brought him a number of sinecure
s to support him. However, Villiers was more interested in the operation of the royal farms at Windsor Castle
than in politics or the duties of his offices. When his bookkeeping as Paymaster of the Marines was carefully examined in 1810, Villiers' carelessness and the speculation of his clerk had left him in debt to the Crown by more than £250,000. This exposure touched off a public scandal; Villiers promptly surrendered all his property to the Crown and threw himself on the king's mercy. The misconduct of Joseph Hunt as Treasurer of the Ordnance
to some extent obscured Villiers' own misconduct, and he was able to retain other sinecures and a stable, if reduced, income from them until his death in 1827.
and Charlotte Capell. His maternal grandparents were William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex
and Jane Hyde. George, like his brother, was educated at Eton College
and then St John's College, Cambridge
, graduating with an MA in 1779. It was presumably through the influence of his father, then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
under the first Pitt ministry
, that he was appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber to George III on 13 January 1783, and Clerk of the Council and Registrar of the Duchy of Lancaster
in August 1786. A polished courtier, Villiers earned the nickname "Tiger" among his party for his vehement support of the king; although as Fanny Burney
observed, his "remarkably slim, slight and delicate person" did not match the nickname.
In 1792, Villiers purchased the support of Lord Warwick
, and was returned as Member of Parliament
for Warwick
in the by-election
of 18 January 1792 as a Tory. On 19 March 1792, shortly after his entry into Parliament, Villiers was appointed to the office of Paymaster of Marines, a sinecure which would ultimately prove his undoing. The salary of the post was fixed at £600 p.a. after a reform in 1800. In 1794, Villiers became the captain commanding the newly raised Western Troop of the Hertfordshire Gentlemen and Yeomanry-Cavalry
.
He was elected unopposed in 1796, but did not stand for the borough in 1802. Though a friend of Pitt's government, he rarely attended the House; George Rose
commented in a letter that Villiers's loss would have no impact on the Tories. While a Member of Parliament, in 1798, he married Lord Boringdon
's daughter, Theresa, who would bear him ten children over the next two decades. After leaving Parliament, Villiers continued his presence at Court, and carried messages from the Princess Royal
in Stuttgart
to the king. In 1803, the duties of his office as paymaster were extended, and on 9 May, he was reappointed as Paymaster and Inspector-General of Marines, with a salary of £1,000 p.a. In the same year, he was commissioned a captain in the Watford Volunteer Cavalry. Villiers was prepared to intercede with the king on behalf of Pitt to fulfill the latter's desire for a more comprehensive ministry, which, however, was frustrated; and to bring Pitt's friends into the Ministry of All the Talents
in 1806.
Villiers, indeed, enjoyed considerable favour with the king, who granted him a private bounty of £400 p.a. in 1804 after being compelled to refuse him an office at Windsor Park. He was allowed to hold simultaneous office as a groom of the bedchamber and paymaster, and the king determined to place him in charge of his farms at Windsor as bailiff
. Villiers and his family lived at Windsor Old Lodge until 1805, when he was appointed ranger of Cranbourne Chase and he moved into Cranbourne Lodge
, newly renovated as his residence. Villiers and his wife were particularly intimate with Princess Amelia
, the king's favourite daughter, accounting in part for the Royal favor shown him. With the fall of the Ministry of All the Talents in 1807 and the formation of Portland's government, the Duke of Cumberland
vigorously lobbied Portland to grant Villiers the mastership of the Buckhounds
or some other office, on the grounds of Villiers having rendered "very serious and important services" to the Royal Family, but was unsuccessful.
In 1809, upon the death of John Fordyce, Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown
, Portland proposed to replace that office and that of the Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases
, then held by Lord Glenbervie
, with a three-man commission (the Commissioners of Woods and Forests), and to make Villiers one of the junior commissioners. This reorganization of the Crown Lands temporarily halted upon Portland's resignation and the formation of a new government under Spencer Perceval
. This created an embarrassing difficulty for Villiers and his interest; George Canning
did not choose to serve under Perceval, and Villiers' brother-in-law, the 2nd Lord Boringdon
, was Canning's friend. Nor was the proposed appointment of Villiers universally popular; Lord Glenbervie, the proposed senior commissioner, vented his anger at Perceval's nomination of Villiers in his journal:
Nonetheless, Villiers continued to press his claims to office on Perceval, in a letter of 18 October 1809. He had, he said, turned down a pension of £1,200 p.a. for "reasons...which can never be publicly alluded to" and had received a promise from Portland to replace Fordyce as Surveyor General of the Land Revenues (a post worth £2,000 p.a.); Villiers would, however, be satisfied with the commissionership and £1,000 p.a. in addition, provided that he might retain his office of paymaster. In fact, that office was about to become the engine of Villiers' political destruction. He appears to have received the sinecure offices of registrar of the Vice-Admiralty Court
of Gibraltar
and marshal of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Antigua
around this time.Thorne dates these appointments to 1811, but a letter of 27 January 1810 by "A.B." in Cobbett's political register refers to "sinecures at Gibraltar, and in the West Indies," presumably the same.
of an office like that of Paymaster of Marines lay not so much in the official salary attached to it, but in the lax accounting procedures associated with disbursement of funds, which allowed the official to retain large sums of public money in his own hands for many years until accounts were made up. The office of Paymaster General had been reformed in 1783 to avoid these abuses, but these changes had not yet been extended to the Marines during Villiers' tenure.
He appears to have taken little interest in his official duties both as paymaster and inspector-general, leaving affairs in the hands of Edmund Waters. Waters had been his private secretary, and when Villiers came to office as paymaster, Waters was appointed chief clerk in that department, rising to deputy paymaster in 1797. Waters and Villiers invested in real estate with some of the money passing through the office; unfortunately for Villiers, Waters was also diverting some of the funds to his own interest in the Opera House
, and the accounts of the office were in a shambles.
Well aware of the parlous state of the office's accounts, Waters retired from the Marine Pay Office in 1807 as an independently wealthy man (only to lose the fortune in his Opera House investments). The lax regime in the Pay Office rattled on, however, until 27 December 1809, when Perceval became aware of the state of Villiers' accounts. Villiers, to his credit, immediately resigned and took responsibility for his official debts. Perceval allowed him to proffer his resignation directly to the king, but Villiers could not face his master; Perceval informed the king of the state of affairs in a letter of 15 January 1810, laying the blame for the situation largely on Waters. Perceval's letter noted that "reports were circulating on the subject to such an extent as to make it impossible to hope that it would not become the subject of Parliamentary observation." By this time, Villiers's accounts had been audited through the year 1804, revealing him to be in arrears by the staggering sum of £280,000 through that point. On the advice of his brother-in-law Boringdon, Villiers offered up all his property to the Crown, although he could not hope to pay off the entire sum found wanting by this means. The episode left him in a condition of nervous prostration, the more so as he by now had five children to support. A letter by "A.B." in Cobbett
's Political Register of 27 January 1810 assailed Villiers for his delinquency and estimated that his debt, with interest, might run to £500,000.
Fortunately for Villiers, his case was not to be prosecuted with the utmost rigour. He was to some degree protected by the joint efforts of Boringdon's friends and the Whig George Tierney
, as well as his own quick action in surrendering his property through writs of extent; and the delinquency of Joseph Hunt, Treasurer of the Ordnance
attracted attention and saved Villiers from the full wrath of the finance committee. Their report on the matter noted that the writ of extent had been to the amount of £264,000, but only £91,000 had been raised from the sale of his property, and about £30,000 from securities and the bond posted for him when he took office. The committee recommended the abolition of the office of Paymaster of Marines and the transfer of its duties to the Treasurer of the Navy
, a recommendation which was not immediately acted upon. Villiers was left, in Boringdon's estimation, with a debt of £1,500–2,000, an annual income of £2,000–3,000, and the property in Cranbourne Lodge.
However, his disgrace was not over. After his resignation, Villiers had been replaced by Lord Mulgrave
's brother, Edmund Phipps, as paymaster and lost his prospective place as a commissioner of woods and forests. Then, he was informed on 4 May 1810, after the release of the finance committee's report, that the king had removed from him the supervision of the farms at Windsor (he also lost the rangership). The news threw him into a state of great mental distress; he wrote to the king begging him to suspend judgement on the points raised by the committee's report. The king replied that it was "indispensable" to remove Villiers from his office under the circumstances, but extended his sympathy and suspended judgement on him.
The final disaster for Villiers occurred in November, when Princess Amelia died. After her death, Villiers and his wife attempted to blackmail the Royal Family by threatening (in a letter to her doctor, Sir Henry Halford
) to release some of her correspondence, much to the shock of her sister, Princess Mary
. The family finally moved out of Cranborne Lodge in 1812.
The untangling of his accounts dragged on until 1819, prolonged by his enemies at the Navy Office and his own fiscal incapacity. At length a balance of £220,000 was found against him, but by this time his career was hopelessly ruined. He left office as a groom of the bedchamber in 1815, but retained his vice-admiralty sinecures until his death. In 1824, he became heir presumptive
to the Earldom of Clarendon
but died in 1827 without inheriting it.
and his second wife Hon. Theresa Robinson. Her maternal grandparents were Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham
and Frances Worsley. They had ten children:
Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Family:Clarendon was the second son of William Villiers, 2nd Earl of Jersey and his wife Judith Herne, daughter of Frederick Herne....
(later Earl of Clarendon), he was an intimate of Princess Amelia
Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom
Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom was a member of the British Royal Family as the youngest daughter of King George III of the United Kingdom and his queen consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.-Early life:...
and personal supporter of her father, George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
. His favour within the Royal Family and his father's influence brought him a number of sinecure
Sinecure
A sinecure means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service...
s to support him. However, Villiers was more interested in the operation of the royal farms at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
than in politics or the duties of his offices. When his bookkeeping as Paymaster of the Marines was carefully examined in 1810, Villiers' carelessness and the speculation of his clerk had left him in debt to the Crown by more than £250,000. This exposure touched off a public scandal; Villiers promptly surrendered all his property to the Crown and threw himself on the king's mercy. The misconduct of Joseph Hunt as Treasurer of the Ordnance
Treasurer of the Ordnance
The Treasurer of the Ordnance was a subordinate of the Master-General of the Ordnance in the United Kingdom, the office being created in 1670. The office was abolished in 1836 and its duties merged with that of several others to form the office of Paymaster-General.-Treasurers of the Ordnance:*25...
to some extent obscured Villiers' own misconduct, and he was able to retain other sinecures and a stable, if reduced, income from them until his death in 1827.
Upbringing and political career
Villiers was the youngest son of Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of ClarendonThomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon PC was a British politician and diplomat.-Family:Clarendon was the second son of William Villiers, 2nd Earl of Jersey and his wife Judith Herne, daughter of Frederick Herne....
and Charlotte Capell. His maternal grandparents were William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex
William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex
William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex, KG, PC was the son of the 2nd Earl of Essex.Capell was one of the founding governors of the charity, the Foundling Hospital, created in October 1739 to care for abandoned children....
and Jane Hyde. George, like his brother, was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and then St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's alumni include nine Nobel Prize winners, six Prime Ministers, three archbishops, at least two princes, and three Saints....
, graduating with an MA in 1779. It was presumably through the influence of his father, then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is, in modern times, a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom that includes as part of its duties, the administration of the estates and rents of the Duchy of Lancaster...
under the first Pitt ministry
First Pitt the Younger Ministry
-The initial ministry:For the first several days of the ministry, Lord Temple held both the secretaryships of state.-Changes:*March, 1784 - The Duke of Rutland becomes Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, remaining also Lord Privy Seal....
, that he was appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber to George III on 13 January 1783, and Clerk of the Council and Registrar of the Duchy of Lancaster
Clerk of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster
Clerk of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster is an office of the Duchy of Lancaster, in England.Mr Paul Clarke FRICS has been Chief Executive, Clerk of the Council, Keeper of the Records and Surveyor General of the Duchy of Lancaster since 2000....
in August 1786. A polished courtier, Villiers earned the nickname "Tiger" among his party for his vehement support of the king; although as Fanny Burney
Fanny Burney
Frances Burney , also known as Fanny Burney and, after her marriage, as Madame d’Arblay, was an English novelist, diarist and playwright. She was born in Lynn Regis, now King’s Lynn, England, on 13 June 1752, to musical historian Dr Charles Burney and Mrs Esther Sleepe Burney...
observed, his "remarkably slim, slight and delicate person" did not match the nickname.
In 1792, Villiers purchased the support of Lord Warwick
George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick
George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick, FRS, FSA , styled Lord Greville until 1773, was a British nobleman and politician....
, and was returned as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Warwick
Warwick (UK Parliament constituency)
Warwick was a parliamentary borough consisting of the town of Warwick, within the larger Warwickshire constituency of England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England from 1295 to 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and then to the...
in the by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
of 18 January 1792 as a Tory. On 19 March 1792, shortly after his entry into Parliament, Villiers was appointed to the office of Paymaster of Marines, a sinecure which would ultimately prove his undoing. The salary of the post was fixed at £600 p.a. after a reform in 1800. In 1794, Villiers became the captain commanding the newly raised Western Troop of the Hertfordshire Gentlemen and Yeomanry-Cavalry
Hertfordshire Yeomanry
The Hertfordshire Yeomanry is a British Army unit specializing in artillery and yeomanry that can trace its formation to the late 18th century. First seeing service in the Boer War, it subsequently served in both World Wars....
.
He was elected unopposed in 1796, but did not stand for the borough in 1802. Though a friend of Pitt's government, he rarely attended the House; George Rose
George Rose
The Right Honourable George Rose was a British politician.Born at Woodside near Brechin, Scotland, Rose was the son of the Reverend David Rose of Lethnot, by Margaret, daughter of Donald Rose of Wester Clune...
commented in a letter that Villiers's loss would have no impact on the Tories. While a Member of Parliament, in 1798, he married Lord Boringdon
John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon
John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon was a British peer and Member of Parliament.Parker was the son of John Parker and Catherine Poulett, daughter of John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett, and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He was elected to the House of Commons for Bodmin in 1761, a seat he held...
's daughter, Theresa, who would bear him ten children over the next two decades. After leaving Parliament, Villiers continued his presence at Court, and carried messages from the Princess Royal
Charlotte, Princess Royal
The Princess Charlotte, Princess Royal was a member of the British Royal Family, the eldest daughter of George III. She was later the Queen Consort of Frederick of Württemberg...
in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
to the king. In 1803, the duties of his office as paymaster were extended, and on 9 May, he was reappointed as Paymaster and Inspector-General of Marines, with a salary of £1,000 p.a. In the same year, he was commissioned a captain in the Watford Volunteer Cavalry. Villiers was prepared to intercede with the king on behalf of Pitt to fulfill the latter's desire for a more comprehensive ministry, which, however, was frustrated; and to bring Pitt's friends into the Ministry of All the Talents
Ministry of All the Talents
The Ministry of All the Talents was a national unity government formed by William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville on his appointment as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 11 February 1806 after the death of William Pitt the Younger...
in 1806.
Villiers, indeed, enjoyed considerable favour with the king, who granted him a private bounty of £400 p.a. in 1804 after being compelled to refuse him an office at Windsor Park. He was allowed to hold simultaneous office as a groom of the bedchamber and paymaster, and the king determined to place him in charge of his farms at Windsor as bailiff
Bailiff
A bailiff is a governor or custodian ; a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or jurisdiction is committed...
. Villiers and his family lived at Windsor Old Lodge until 1805, when he was appointed ranger of Cranbourne Chase and he moved into Cranbourne Lodge
Cranbourne Lodge
Cranbourne Lodge was a keeper's lodge for the royal hunting grounds of Cranbourne Chase, once adjoining but now part of Windsor Great Park in the English county of Berkshire...
, newly renovated as his residence. Villiers and his wife were particularly intimate with Princess Amelia
Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom
Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom was a member of the British Royal Family as the youngest daughter of King George III of the United Kingdom and his queen consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.-Early life:...
, the king's favourite daughter, accounting in part for the Royal favor shown him. With the fall of the Ministry of All the Talents in 1807 and the formation of Portland's government, the Duke of Cumberland
Ernest Augustus I of Hanover
Ernest Augustus I was King of Hanover from 20 June 1837 until his death. He was the fifth son and eighth child of George III, who reigned in both the United Kingdom and Hanover...
vigorously lobbied Portland to grant Villiers the mastership of the Buckhounds
Master of the Buckhounds
The Master of the Buckhounds was an officer in the Master of the Horse's department of the British Royal Household. The holder was also His/Her Majesty's Representative at Ascot. It was a political office, so the holder, who was always a nobleman, changed with every change of government. The office...
or some other office, on the grounds of Villiers having rendered "very serious and important services" to the Royal Family, but was unsuccessful.
In 1809, upon the death of John Fordyce, Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown
Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown
The post of Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown was an office under the English Crown, charged with the management of Crown lands...
, Portland proposed to replace that office and that of the Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases
Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases
The post of Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks and Chases was an office under the English Crown, charged with the management of Crown lands...
, then held by Lord Glenbervie
Sylvester Douglas, 1st Baron Glenbervie
Sylvester Douglas, 1st Baron Glenbervie PC, KC, FRS, FSA was a British lawyer, politician and diarist. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland between 1793 and 1794.-Background, education and legal career:...
, with a three-man commission (the Commissioners of Woods and Forests), and to make Villiers one of the junior commissioners. This reorganization of the Crown Lands temporarily halted upon Portland's resignation and the formation of a new government under Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval, KC was a British statesman and First Lord of the Treasury, making him de facto Prime Minister. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated...
. This created an embarrassing difficulty for Villiers and his interest; George Canning
George Canning
George Canning PC, FRS was a British statesman and politician who served as Foreign Secretary and briefly Prime Minister.-Early life: 1770–1793:...
did not choose to serve under Perceval, and Villiers' brother-in-law, the 2nd Lord Boringdon
John Parker, 1st Earl of Morley
John Parker, 1st Earl of Morley FRS , known as Lord Boringdon from 1788 to 1815, was a British peer and politician....
, was Canning's friend. Nor was the proposed appointment of Villiers universally popular; Lord Glenbervie, the proposed senior commissioner, vented his anger at Perceval's nomination of Villiers in his journal:
Nonetheless, Villiers continued to press his claims to office on Perceval, in a letter of 18 October 1809. He had, he said, turned down a pension of £1,200 p.a. for "reasons...which can never be publicly alluded to" and had received a promise from Portland to replace Fordyce as Surveyor General of the Land Revenues (a post worth £2,000 p.a.); Villiers would, however, be satisfied with the commissionership and £1,000 p.a. in addition, provided that he might retain his office of paymaster. In fact, that office was about to become the engine of Villiers' political destruction. He appears to have received the sinecure offices of registrar of the Vice-Admiralty Court
Vice admiralty court
Vice admiralty courts were juryless courts located in British colonies that were granted jurisdiction over local legal matters related to maritime activities, such as disputes between merchants and seamen. Judges were given 5% of confiscated cargo, if they found a smuggling defendant guilty...
of Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
and marshal of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Antigua
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
around this time.Thorne dates these appointments to 1811, but a letter of 27 January 1810 by "A.B." in Cobbett's political register refers to "sinecures at Gibraltar, and in the West Indies," presumably the same.
Scandal and disgrace
The value to the sinecuristSinecure
A sinecure means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service...
of an office like that of Paymaster of Marines lay not so much in the official salary attached to it, but in the lax accounting procedures associated with disbursement of funds, which allowed the official to retain large sums of public money in his own hands for many years until accounts were made up. The office of Paymaster General had been reformed in 1783 to avoid these abuses, but these changes had not yet been extended to the Marines during Villiers' tenure.
He appears to have taken little interest in his official duties both as paymaster and inspector-general, leaving affairs in the hands of Edmund Waters. Waters had been his private secretary, and when Villiers came to office as paymaster, Waters was appointed chief clerk in that department, rising to deputy paymaster in 1797. Waters and Villiers invested in real estate with some of the money passing through the office; unfortunately for Villiers, Waters was also diverting some of the funds to his own interest in the Opera House
Her Majesty's Theatre
Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...
, and the accounts of the office were in a shambles.
Well aware of the parlous state of the office's accounts, Waters retired from the Marine Pay Office in 1807 as an independently wealthy man (only to lose the fortune in his Opera House investments). The lax regime in the Pay Office rattled on, however, until 27 December 1809, when Perceval became aware of the state of Villiers' accounts. Villiers, to his credit, immediately resigned and took responsibility for his official debts. Perceval allowed him to proffer his resignation directly to the king, but Villiers could not face his master; Perceval informed the king of the state of affairs in a letter of 15 January 1810, laying the blame for the situation largely on Waters. Perceval's letter noted that "reports were circulating on the subject to such an extent as to make it impossible to hope that it would not become the subject of Parliamentary observation." By this time, Villiers's accounts had been audited through the year 1804, revealing him to be in arrears by the staggering sum of £280,000 through that point. On the advice of his brother-in-law Boringdon, Villiers offered up all his property to the Crown, although he could not hope to pay off the entire sum found wanting by this means. The episode left him in a condition of nervous prostration, the more so as he by now had five children to support. A letter by "A.B." in Cobbett
William Cobbett
William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...
's Political Register of 27 January 1810 assailed Villiers for his delinquency and estimated that his debt, with interest, might run to £500,000.
Fortunately for Villiers, his case was not to be prosecuted with the utmost rigour. He was to some degree protected by the joint efforts of Boringdon's friends and the Whig George Tierney
George Tierney
George Tierney PC was an English Whig politician.-Background and education:Born in Gibraltar, Tierney was the son of Thomas Tierney, a wealthy Irish merchant of London, who was living in Gibraltar as prize agent. He was sent to Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took the degree of Law in 1784...
, as well as his own quick action in surrendering his property through writs of extent; and the delinquency of Joseph Hunt, Treasurer of the Ordnance
Treasurer of the Ordnance
The Treasurer of the Ordnance was a subordinate of the Master-General of the Ordnance in the United Kingdom, the office being created in 1670. The office was abolished in 1836 and its duties merged with that of several others to form the office of Paymaster-General.-Treasurers of the Ordnance:*25...
attracted attention and saved Villiers from the full wrath of the finance committee. Their report on the matter noted that the writ of extent had been to the amount of £264,000, but only £91,000 had been raised from the sale of his property, and about £30,000 from securities and the bond posted for him when he took office. The committee recommended the abolition of the office of Paymaster of Marines and the transfer of its duties to the Treasurer of the Navy
Treasurer of the Navy
The Treasurer of the Navy was an office in the British government between the mid-16th and early 19th century. The office-holder was responsible for the financial maintenance of the Royal Navy. The office was a political appointment, and frequently was held by up-and-coming young politicians who...
, a recommendation which was not immediately acted upon. Villiers was left, in Boringdon's estimation, with a debt of £1,500–2,000, an annual income of £2,000–3,000, and the property in Cranbourne Lodge.
However, his disgrace was not over. After his resignation, Villiers had been replaced by Lord Mulgrave
Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave
Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave GCB, PC , styled The Honourable Henry Phipps until 1792 and known as The Lord Mulgrave from 1792 to 1812, was a British soldier and politician...
's brother, Edmund Phipps, as paymaster and lost his prospective place as a commissioner of woods and forests. Then, he was informed on 4 May 1810, after the release of the finance committee's report, that the king had removed from him the supervision of the farms at Windsor (he also lost the rangership). The news threw him into a state of great mental distress; he wrote to the king begging him to suspend judgement on the points raised by the committee's report. The king replied that it was "indispensable" to remove Villiers from his office under the circumstances, but extended his sympathy and suspended judgement on him.
The final disaster for Villiers occurred in November, when Princess Amelia died. After her death, Villiers and his wife attempted to blackmail the Royal Family by threatening (in a letter to her doctor, Sir Henry Halford
Henry Halford
Sir Henry Halford, 1st Baronet, GCH , born Henry Vaughan, royal and society physician, was physician extraordinary to King George III from 1793 to 1820, then as physician in ordinary to his three successors - George IV, William IV and the young Victoria...
) to release some of her correspondence, much to the shock of her sister, Princess Mary
Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh
The Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh was a member of the British Royal Family, the eleventh child and fourth daughter of George III....
. The family finally moved out of Cranborne Lodge in 1812.
The untangling of his accounts dragged on until 1819, prolonged by his enemies at the Navy Office and his own fiscal incapacity. At length a balance of £220,000 was found against him, but by this time his career was hopelessly ruined. He left office as a groom of the bedchamber in 1815, but retained his vice-admiralty sinecures until his death. In 1824, he became heir presumptive
Heir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...
to the Earldom of Clarendon
Earl of Clarendon
Earl of Clarendon is a title that has been created twice in British history, in 1661 and 1776. The title was created for the first time in the Peerage of England in 1661 for the statesman Edward Hyde, 1st Baron Hyde...
but died in 1827 without inheriting it.
Marriage and children
On 17 April 1798, George married Theresa Parker. She was a daughter of John Parker, 1st Baron BoringdonJohn Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon
John Parker, 1st Baron Boringdon was a British peer and Member of Parliament.Parker was the son of John Parker and Catherine Poulett, daughter of John Poulett, 1st Earl Poulett, and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford. He was elected to the House of Commons for Bodmin in 1761, a seat he held...
and his second wife Hon. Theresa Robinson. Her maternal grandparents were Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham
Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham
Thomas Robinson, 1st Baron Grantham, KB, PC was a British diplomatist and politician. He was a younger son of Sir William Robinson, Bt...
and Frances Worsley. They had ten children:
- Georgiana Villiers (12 February 1799 – 16 March 1799)
- George Villiers, 4th Earl of ClarendonGeorge Villiers, 4th Earl of ClarendonGeorge William Frederick Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon KG, GCB, PC , was an English diplomat and statesman.-Background and education:...
(27 January 1800 – 27 June 1870) - Thomas Hyde VilliersThomas Hyde VilliersThomas Hyde Villiers was a British politician.The second son of the Hon. George Villiers , he was educated at St John's College, Cambridge...
(24 January 1801 – 3 December 1832) - Hon. Charles Pelham VilliersCharles Pelham VilliersCharles Pelham Villiers was a British lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1835 to 1898, making him the longest-serving Member of Parliament .-Background and education:...
(3 January 1802 – 16 January 1898) - Lady Maria Theresa Villiers (8 March 1803 – 9 November 1865). Married first novelist Thomas Henry ListerThomas Henry ListerThomas Henry Lister was an English novelist and Registrar General.-Life and writings:Lister was the son of Thomas Lister of Armitage Park and his first wife Harriet Anne Seale. His maternal grandfather was John Seale...
on 6 November 1830, they had a daughter (d. 1863). After her first husband's death, she married politician Sir George Cornewall Lewis, 2nd Baronet on 25 October 1844. - Frederick Adolphus Villiers (17 February 1805 – 21 November 1806)
- Hon. Edward Ernest Villiers (23 March 1806 – 30 October 1843). He married Elizabeth Charlotte Liddell, daughter of Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron RavensworthThomas Liddell, 1st Baron RavensworthThomas Henry Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth , known as Sir Thomas Liddell, 6th Baronet, from 1791 to 1821, was a British peer and Tory politician.-Life account:...
, leaving a son and three daughters. Their daughter Edith Villiers married Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of LyttonRobert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of LyttonEdward Robert Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, PC was an English statesman and poet...
and became Lady of the BedchamberLady of the BedchamberThis is an incomplete list of those who have served as Lady of the Bedchamber in the British Royal Household...
to both Queen Victoria and Her Majesty Queen AlexandraAlexandra of DenmarkAlexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...
. - Augustus Villiers (2 March 1808 – 24 March 1808)
- Hon. Henry Montagu Villiers (4 January 1813 – 9 August 1861), Bishop of Durham from 1860 to his death.
- Lt. Hon. Augustus Algernon Villiers, RN (14 April 1817 – 13 July 1843), died unmarried, Knight of Isabella the Catholic