George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton
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The Right Honourable The Lord Lyttelton PC |
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| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
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In office 25 November 1755 – 16 November 1756 |
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| Monarch | George II |
| Prime Minister | The Duke of Newcastle |
| Preceded by | Hon. Henry Bilson Legge |
| Succeeded by | Hon. Henry Bilson Legge |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
17 January 1709 Hagley, Worcestershire |
| Died | 22 August 1773 (aged 64) Hagley, Worcestershire |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Whig |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Lucy Fortescue (d. 1747) (2) Elizabeth Rich |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton PC (17 January 1709 – 22 August 1773), known as Sir George Lyttelton, Bt between 1751 and 1756, was a British statesman and patron of the arts from the Lyttelton family.
Lord Lyttelton was the son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet, by his wife Christian, daughter of Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.
He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Okehampton from 1735 to 1756. In 1741 he was also elected for Old Sarum, but chose to continue to sit for Okehampton.
He was one of the politicians who opposed Robert Walpole as a member (one of Cobham's Cubs) of the Whig Opposition the 1730s. He served as secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales, from 1737, and as a Commissioner of the Treasury in 1744. After Walpole's fall, Lyttelton became Chancellor of the Exchequer (1755). In 1756 he was raised to the peerage as Lord Lyttelton, Baron of Frankley in the County of Worcester.
Lord Lyttelton was a friend and supporter to Alexander Pope in the 1730s and to Henry Fielding in the 1750s. James Thomson addresses him throughout his poem The Seasons, and Lyttelton arranged a pension for Thomson. He wrote Dialogues of the Dead in 1760 with Elizabeth Montagu, leader of the , and The History of the Life of Henry the Second (1767–1771). The former work is part of a tradition of such dialogues. Henry Fielding dedicated Tom Jones to him. Lyttelton spent many years and a fortune developing Hagley Hall and its park which contains many follies. The hall itself, which is in north Worcestershire, was designed by Sanderson Miller and is the last of the great Palladian houses to be built in England.
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