Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, , styled Earl of Euston between 1747 and 1757, was a BritishWhig statesman of the Georgian era. He is one of a handful of dukes who have served as Prime Minister. He became Prime Minister in 1768 at the age of 33, leading the supporters of William Pitt, and was the youngest person to have held the office until the appointment of William Pitt the Younger 15 years later. However, he struggled to demonstrate an ability to counter increasing challenges to Britain's global dominance following the nation's victory in the Seven Years' War. He was widely attacked for allowing France to annex Corsica, and stepped down in 1770, handing over power to Lord North.
In 1756, he entered Parliament as MP for Boroughbridge, a pocket borough; several months later, he switched constituencies to Bury St Edmunds, which was controlled by his family. However, a year later, his grandfather died and he succeeded as 3rd Duke of Grafton, which elevated him to the House of Lords. He first became known in politics as an opponent of Lord Bute, a favourite of King George III. Grafton aligned himself with the Duke of Newcastle against Lord Bute, whose term as Prime Minister was short-lived largely because it was felt that the peace terms to which he had agreed at the Treaty of Paris were not a sufficient return for Britain's performance in the Seven Years' War. In 1765, Grafton was appointed a Privy Counsellor; then, following discussions with William Pitt the Elder, he was appointed Northern Secretary in Lord Rockingham's first government. However, he retired the following year, and Pitt formed a ministry in which Grafton was First Lord of the Treasury but not Prime Minister. Chatham's illness, at the end of 1767, resulted in Grafton becoming the Government's effective leader, but political differences, the impact of the Corsican Crisis and the attacks of "Junius" led to his resignation in January 1770. Also, in 1768, Grafton became Chancellor of Cambridge University. He became Lord Privy Seal in Lord North's ministry but resigned in 1775, being in favour of conciliatory action towards the American colonists. In the second Rockingham ministry of 1782, he was again Lord Privy Seal and continued in post in the following Shelburne ministry until March 1783.
Religious interests
In later years he was a prominent Unitarian, being one of the early members of the inaugural Essex Street Chapel under Rev. Theophilus Lindsey when founded in 1774. Grafton had associated with a number of liberal Anglican theologians when at Cambridge, devoted much time to theological study and writing after leaving office as Prime Minister. In 1773 in the House of Lords he supported a bill to release Anglican clergy from subscribing to all the Thirty-nine Articles. He became an advocate of moral reformation among the upper classes and of liturgical reform. He was author of:
Hints Submitted to the Serious Attention of the Clergy, Nobility and Gentry, by a Layman.
Serious Reflections of a Rational Christian from 1788–1797.
He was a sponsor of Richard Watson's Consideration of the Expediency of Revising the Liturgy and Article of the Church of England and he funded the printing of 700 copies of Griesbach's edition of the Greek New Testament in 1796.
General Lord Charles FitzRoy, who married, firstly, Frances Mundy on 20 June 1795, and had one son. He married, secondly, Lady Frances Stewart on 10 March 1799 and had three children. His sons Sir Charles FitzRoy, governor of New South Wales, and Robert FitzRoy, the hydrographer, were notable for their achievements.
In 1764, the Duke had a very public affair with the courtesan Nancy Parsons whom he kept at his town house and took to the opera. This brazen lack of convention offended society's standards. After the Duchess had become pregnant by her lover, the Earl of Upper Ossory, she and the Duke were divorced by Act of Parliament, passed 23 March 1769. Three months later, on 24 June 1769, the Duke married Elizabeth Wrottesley, daughter of the Reverend Sir Richard Wrottesley, Dean of Worcester. They had the following children:
Lord Henry FitzRoy, clergyman; he married Caroline Pigot on 10 September 1800 and had five children. Ancestor of Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick.
Lady Elizabeth FitzRoy, who married her cousin Lt. Gen. The Hon. William FitzRoy, son of the 1st Baron Southampton, on 4 July 1811.
Lady Isabella FitzRoy, who married Barrington Pope Blachford on 11 August 1812.
Grafton was thus the first British Prime Minister, before Sir Anthony Eden, to be divorced and the second, after Sir Robert Walpole, to marry while in office. Grafton would be the only Prime Minister to divorce and remarry whilst in office until 2020.
