The Right Honourable The Earl of Iddesleigh GCB PC |
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President of the Board of Trade | |
In office 6 July 1866 – 8 March 1867 |
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Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Earl of Derby |
Preceded by | Thomas Milner Gibson |
Succeeded by | The Duke of Richmond |
Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
In office 21 February 1874 – 21 April 1880 |
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Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | Benjamin Disraeli |
Preceded by | William Ewart Gladstone |
Succeeded by | William Ewart Gladstone |
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | |
In office 3 August 1886 – 12 January 1887 |
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Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Marquess of Salisbury |
Preceded by | The Earl of Rosebery |
Succeeded by | The Marquess of Salisbury |
Personal details | |
Born |
27 October 1818 London |
Died | 12 January 1887 London |
(aged 68)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) | Cecilia Frances Farrer (died 1910) |
Children | 10 |
Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford |
Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh, GCB, PC, FRS (27 October 1818 – 12 January 1887), known as Sir Stafford Northcote, Bt, from 1851 to 1885, was a British Conservative politician. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1874 and 1880 and as Foreign Secretary between 1885 and 1886, and was one of only two people to hold the office of First Lord of the Treasury without ever being Prime Minister.
Northcote (pronounced "Northcut") was born in London, the eldest son of Henry Stafford Northcote (1792–1850), eldest son of Sir Stafford Henry Northcote, 7th Baronet. His mother was Agnes Mary (died 1840), daughter of Thomas Cockburn. His paternal ancestors had long been settled in Devon, tracing their descent from Galfridas de Nordcote who settled there in 1103. The family home was situated at Pynes House northwest of Exeter. Northcote was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford and was called to the bar, Inner Temple, in 1847.
In 1843 Northcote became private secretary to William Ewart Gladstone at the Board of Trade. He was afterwards legal secretary to the board; and after acting as one of the secretaries to the Great Exhibition of 1851, co-operated with Sir Charles Trevelyan in framing the Northcote–Trevelyan Report which revolutionized the conditions of appointment to the Civil Service. He succeeded his grandfather, Sir Stafford Henry Northcote (1762–1851), as 8th baronet in 1851. He entered Parliament in 1855 as Conservative Member of Parliament for Dudley, and was elected for Stamford in 1858, a seat which he exchanged in 1866 for North Devon. He was briefly Financial Secretary to the Treasury under the Earl of Derby from January to July 1859.