John Villiers, 3rd Earl of Clarendon

John Charles Villiers, 3rd Earl of Clarendon PC (14 November 1757 – 22 December 1838), styled The Honourable John Villiers until 1787 and The Right Honourable John Villiers from 1787 to 1824, was a British peer and Member of Parliament from the Villiers family.

Biography

Villiers, the second son of Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon, and his wife Lady Charlotte, was born on 14 November 1757. He was educated at Eton, and St John's College, Cambridge whence he graduated M.A. 1776 and LL.D. on 30 April 1833, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 22 June 1779.

In January 1784 Lord Camelford (probably at Pitt the Elder's request) brought Villiers into parliament at a by-election for Old Sarum, and he represented that rotten borough until 1790, and then sat for Dartmouth 1790–1802, and for the Wick Burghs from 1802 until 27 May 1805, when he accepted the Chiltern Hundreds. He was afterwards member for Queenborough 1807–1812 and 1820–1824. Villiers did not make his mark in Parliament as a debater, and was styled "a mere courtier, famous for telling interminable long stories".

The Rolliad notices him as "Villiers, comely with the flaxen hair", and likens him to the Nereus of Homer. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall also styles him the "Nereus" of Pitt's forces, and mentions him as a staunch supporter of that minister, to whose friendship entirely he owed his appointment for life in February 1790 to the lucrative sinecure of warden and chief justice in eyre of all the royal forests, chaces, parks, and warrens north of Trent.

On 6 February 1782 Villiers was made joint King's Counsel in the Duchy Court of Lancaster by his father, who then was chancellor of the Duchy. From 29 July 1786 until his succession to the peerage he was surveyor of woods south of the Trent of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was added to the Privy Council and made Comptroller of the king's Household on 19 February 1787. This position at court he filled for three years, and on 24 February 1790 he was made a Commissioner of the Board of Trade. He was Recorder and Under-Steward of New Windsor from 1789 to 1806.

When the rise of the French Republic caused apprehensions in Britain, Villiers was appointed colonel of the First Regiment of Fencible Cavalry on 14 March 1794, and was granted the rank of colonel in the army during service in the field. He was made first Prothonotary of the Common Pleas in the County Palatine of Lancaster in June 1804, and held the office until his death. From 27 November 1808 to 10 January 1810 Villiers was envoy to the court of Portugal. On the death of his eldest brother, Thomas, unmarried, on 7 March 1824, he succeeded him as 3rd Earl of Clarendon and as a count of the Kingdom of Prussia, but took little part afterwards in public life, devoting himself to religious and charitable works. He died suddenly, aged 81, at his residence, Walmer Terrace, Deal, Kent on 22 December 1838, and was buried at Watford on 29 December.

Villiers was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew, George Villiers, who became a distinguished Liberal statesman.

Family

Lord Clarendon married his maternal first cousin Maria Eleanor Forbes, daughter of Admiral John Forbes (1714–1796), and Lady Mary Capell, on 5 January 1791. His mother Lady Charlotte Capell and Lady Mary Capell were sisters. They were both daughters of William Capell, 3rd Earl of Essex and Lady Jane Hyde. The marriage produced one child Lady Mary Harriet Villiers who died on 20 January 1835 unmarried.

References

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: . Endnotes:
  • Foster's Peerage;
  • Official Return of Members of Parliament;
  • Haydn's Book of Dignities;
  • Doyle's Official Baronage;
  • Gent. Mag. 1839, i. 207.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Clarendon

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Pinckney Wilkinson Thomas Pitt	Member of Parliament for Old Sarum 1784–1790 With: Pinckney Wilkinson Jan – Mar 1784 George Hardinge 1784–1790	Succeeded by George Hardinge John Sullivan
Preceded by Edmund Bastard Richard Hopkins	Member of Parliament for Dartmouth 1790–1801 With: Edmund Bastard	Succeeded by Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Parliament of Great Britain	Member of Parliament for Dartmouth 1801–1802 With: Edmund Bastard	Succeeded by Edmund Bastard Arthur Howe Holdsworth
Preceded by William Dundas	Member of Parliament for Tain Burghs 1802–1805	Succeeded by James MacDonald
Preceded by William Frankland Sir Samuel Romilly	Member of Parliament for Queenborough 1807–1812 With: Joseph Hunt 1807–1810 Richard Wellesley 1810 – Jan 1812 Sir Robert Moorsom Jan – Oct 1812	Succeeded by Sir Robert Moorsom John Osborn
Preceded by Sir Robert Moorsom Hon. Edmund Phipps	Member of Parliament for Queenborough 1822–1824 With: George Peter Holford	Succeeded by Lord Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck George Peter Holford
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Earl of Derby	Senior Privy Counsellor 1834–1838	Succeeded by The Lord St Helens
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Thomas Villiers	Earl of Clarendon 1824–1838	Succeeded by George Villiers