Spencer Perceval
Spencer Perceval was a British statesman and barrister who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. He is the only British prime minister to have been assassinated, and the only solicitor-general or attorney-general to have become prime minister.
The younger son of The Earl of Egmont, an Anglo-Irish earl, Perceval was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He studied law at Lincoln's Inn, practised as a barrister on the Midland circuit, and in 1796 became a King's Counsel. He entered politics at age 33 as a member of Parliament for Northampton. A follower of William Pitt the Younger, Perceval always described himself as a "friend of Mr. Pitt", rather than a Tory. He was opposed to Catholic emancipation and reform of Parliament; he supported the war against Napoleon and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade.
After a late entry into politics, his rise to power was rapid; he was appointed as Solicitor General and then Attorney General for England and Wales in the Addington ministry, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons in the second Portland ministry, and then became prime minister in 1809. At the head of a weak government, Perceval faced a number of crises during his term in office, including an inquiry into the Walcheren expedition, the mental illness and incapacity of King George III, economic depression, and Luddite riots. He overcame those crises, successfully pursued the Peninsular War in the face of opposition defeatism, and won the support of the Prince Regent. His position was stronger by early 1812, when in the lobby of the House of Commons, he was assassinated by John Bellingham, a merchant with a grievance against his government. Bellingham was hanged one week later.
Perceval had four older brothers who survived to adulthood. Through expiry of their male-line, male heirs, the earldom of Egmont passed to one of his great-grandsons in the early 20th century and became extinct in 2011.
Childhood and education
Perceval was born in Audley Square, Mayfair, London, the seventh son of the 2nd Earl of Egmont; he was the second son of the Earl's second marriage. His mother, Catherine Compton, Baroness Arden, was a granddaughter of the 4th Earl of Northampton. Spencer was a Compton family name; Catherine Compton's great-uncle Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, had been prime minister.His father, a political adviser to Frederick, Prince of Wales and King George III, served briefly in the cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty. Perceval's early childhood was spent at Charlton House, London, which his father had taken to be near Woolwich Dockyard.
Lord Egmont, Perceval's father, died when he was eight. Perceval went to Harrow School, where he was a disciplined and hard-working pupil. It was at Harrow that he developed an interest in evangelical Anglicanism and formed what was to be a lifelong friendship with Dudley Ryder. After five years at Harrow, he followed his older brother Charles to Trinity College, Cambridge. There he won the declamation prize in English and graduated in 1782.
Legal career and marriage
As the second son of a second marriage, Perceval had an allowance of just £200 a year and, without the prospect of inherited wealth, had to make his own way in life. He chose the law as a profession, studied at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1786. Perceval's mother had died in 1783. Perceval and his brother Charles, now Lord Arden, rented a house in Charlton, where they fell in love with two sisters who were living in the Percevals' old childhood home. The sisters' father, Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson, approved of the match between his eldest daughter Margaretta and Lord Arden, who was wealthy and already a Member of Parliament and a Lord of the Admiralty. Perceval, who was at that time an impecunious barrister on the Midland Circuit, was told to wait until the younger daughter, Jane, came of age in three years' time. When Jane reached 21, in 1790, Perceval's career was still not prospering, and Sir Thomas still opposed the marriage. The couple eloped and married by special licence in East Grinstead. They set up home together in lodgings over a carpet shop in Bedford Row, later moving to Lindsey House, Lincoln's Inn Fields.Perceval's family connections obtained a number of positions for him: Deputy Recorder of Northampton, and commissioner of bankrupts in 1790; surveyor of the Maltings and clerk of the irons in the mint– a sinecure worth £119 a year – in 1791; and counsel to the Board of Admiralty in 1794. He acted as junior counsel for the Crown in the trial of Thomas Paine for seditious libel, and the prosecution of John Horne Tooke for high treason. Perceval joined the London and Westminster Light Horse Volunteers in 1794 when the country was under threat of invasion by France and served with them until 1803.
Perceval wrote anonymous pamphlets in favour of the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and in defence of public order against sedition. These pamphlets brought him to the attention of William Pitt the Younger, and in 1795 he was offered the appointment of Chief Secretary for Ireland. He declined the offer. He could earn more as a barrister and needed the money to support his growing family. In 1796 he became a King's Counsel at the age of 33 and had an income of about £1,000 a year.
Early political career: 1796–1801
In 1796, Perceval's uncle, the 8th Earl of Northampton, died. Perceval's cousin Charles Compton, who was MP for Northampton, succeeded to the earldom and took his place in the House of Lords. Perceval was invited to stand for election in his place. In the May by-election, Perceval was elected unopposed. Weeks later, he had to defend his seat in a fiercely contested general election. Northampton had an electorate of about 1,000 – every male householder not in receipt of poor relief had a vote – and the town had a strong radical tradition. Perceval stood for the Castle Ashby interest, Edward Bouverie for the Whigs, and William Walcot for the corporation. After a disputed count, Perceval and Bouverie were returned. Perceval represented Northampton until his death 16 years later, and is the only MP for Northampton to have held the office of prime minister. 1796 was his first and last contested election; in the general elections of 1802, 1806 and 1807, Perceval and Bouverie were returned unopposed.When Perceval took his seat in the House of Commons in September 1796, his political views were already formed. "He was for the constitution and Pitt; he was against Fox and France", wrote his biographer Denis Gray. During the 1796–1797 session, he made several speeches, always reading from notes. His public speaking skills had been sharpened at the Crown and Rolls debating society when he was a law student. After taking his seat in the House of Commons, Perceval continued with his legal practice, as MPs did not receive a salary, and the House only sat for a part of the year. During the Parliamentary recess of the summer of 1797, he was senior counsel for the Crown in the prosecution of John Binns for sedition. Binns, who was defended by Samuel Romilly, was found not guilty. The fees from his legal practice allowed Perceval to take out a lease on a country house, Belsize House in Hampstead.
It was during the next session of Parliament, in January 1798, that Perceval established his reputation as a debater – and his prospects as a future minister – with a speech in support of the Assessed Taxes Bill. He used the occasion to mount an attack on Charles Fox and his demands for reform. Pitt described the speech as one of the best he had ever heard, and later that year Perceval was appointed to the post of Solicitor to the Ordnance.
Solicitor and attorney general: 1801–1806
Pitt resigned in 1801 when both George III and the Cabinet opposed his bill for Catholic emancipation. As Perceval shared the King's views on Catholic emancipation, he did not feel obliged to follow Pitt into opposition. His career continued to prosper during Henry Addington's administration. He was appointed solicitor general in 1801 and attorney general the following year. Perceval did not agree with Addington's general policies, and confined himself to speeches on legal issues. He was retained in the position of attorney general when Addington resigned, and Pitt formed his second ministry in 1804. As attorney general, Perceval was involved with the prosecution of radicals Edward Despard and William Cobbett, but was also responsible for more liberal decisions on trade unions, and for improving the conditions of convicts transported to New South Wales.When Pitt died in January 1806, Perceval was an emblem bearer at his funeral. Although he had little money to spare, he contributed £1,000 towards a fund to pay off Pitt's debts. He resigned as attorney general, refusing to serve in Lord Grenville's Ministry of All the Talents, as it included Fox. Instead he became the leader of the Pittite opposition in the House of Commons.
During his period in opposition, Perceval used his legal skills to defend Princess Caroline, the estranged wife of the Prince of Wales, during the "delicate investigation". The princess had been accused of giving birth to an illegitimate child, and the Prince of Wales ordered an inquiry, hoping to obtain evidence for a divorce. The government inquiry found that the main accusation was untrue, but it was critical of the behaviour of the princess. The opposition sprang to her defence and Perceval became her adviser, drafting a 156-page letter to King George III in her support. Known as, it was described by Perceval's biographer as "the last and greatest production of his legal career". When the King refused to let Caroline return to court, Perceval threatened publication of The Book, but Grenville's ministry fell – again over a difference of opinion with the King on the Catholic question – before The Book could be distributed. As a member of the new government, Perceval drafted a cabinet minute acquitting Caroline on all charges and recommending her return to court. He had a bonfire of The Book at Lindsey House, and large sums of government money were spent on buying back stray copies. A few remained at large and The Book was published soon after his death.