George Legge, 3rd Earl of Dartmouth


George Legge, 3rd Earl of Dartmouth KG, PC, FRS, styled Viscount Lewisham until 1801, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1778 to 1784.

Background

George Legge, known from birth as Viscount Lewisham, was born 3 October 1755.
He was the eldest son of William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, and Frances Katherine, daughter of Sir Charles Gounter Nicoll. He was the elder brother of Admiral Sir Arthur Kaye Legge and Edward Legge, Bishop of Oxford.
He was educated at Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated 22 October 1771, and was created M.A. 3 July 1775, and D.C.L. 28 October 1778. At some time during the 1770s he went to Florence as he appears in an important painting by Johann Zoffany which the artist titled the Tribuna of the Uffizi.

Political career

Lewisham was returned to Parliament for Plymouth in 1778, a seat he held until 1780. < The latter year he was returned for both Horsham and Staffordshire 1784, but chose to represent the latter. He continued to represent this constituency until 1784. From 1783 to 1798 he served as Lord Warden of the Stannaries. He remained out of parliament for the next 17 years, but in 1801 he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title of Baron Dartmouth. He succeeded his father in the earldom later the same year. Dartmouth served under Henry Addington as President of the Board of Control between 1801 and 1802 and as Lord Steward between 1802 and 1804. From 1804 to 1810 he was Lord Chamberlain under successively Pitt the Younger, Lord Grenville, the Duke of Portland and Spencer Perceval. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1801 and appointed a Knight of the Garter in 1805. He was also admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society on 3 May 1781 and was the first President of the British Institution in 1805.

Family

Lord Dartmouth married Lady Frances, daughter of Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford, on 24 September 1782. They had fifteen children:
Lord Dartmouth died on 10 November 1810, aged 55, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, William. Lady Dartmouth only survived her husband by eleven days and died on 21 November 1810.