The Paymaster of the Forces was a position in the British government. The office was established in 1661, one year after the Restoration of the Monarchy to Charles II of England, and was responsible for part of the financing of the British Army, in the improved form created by Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth. The full title was Paymaster-General of His Majesty's Forces. It was abolished in 1836, near the end of the reign of William IV, and was replaced by the new post of Paymaster General.
History
The first to hold the office was Sir Stephen Fox (1627–1716), an exceptionally able administrator who had remained a member of the household of King Charles II during his exile in France. Before his time, and before the Civil War, there was no standing army and it had been the custom to appoint treasurers-at-war, ad hoc, for campaigns. Within a generation of the Restoration, the status of the paymastership began to change. In 1692 the then paymaster, Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh, was made a member of the Privy Council; and thereafter every paymaster, or when there were two paymasters at least one of them, joined the Privy Council if not already a member. From the accession of Queen Anne the paymaster tended to change with the government. By the 18th century the office had become a political prize and potentially the most lucrative that a parliamentary career could obtain. Appointments to the office were therefore made often not due to merit alone, but also to political affiliation. It was occasionally a cabinet-level post in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and many future prime ministers served as paymaster.
Before the development of the banking system, the duty of the paymaster was to act as the personal sole domestic banker of the army. He received, mainly from the Exchequer, the sums voted by Parliament for military expenditure. Other sums were also received, for example from the sale of old stores. He disbursed these sums, by his own hands or by deputy paymasters, under the authority of sign-manual warrants for ordinary expenses of the army, and under Treasury warrants for extraordinary expenses (expenses unforeseen and unprovided for by Parliament).
During the whole time in which public money was in his hands, from the day of receipt until the receipt of his final discharge (the quietus of the Pipe Office), he assumed unlimited personal liability for the funds, thus his private estate was liable for the money in his hands. Failing the quietus this liability remained without limit of time, passing on his death to his heirs and legal representatives.
Appointments were made by the Crown by letters patent under the Great Seal. The patent salary was £400 from 1661 to 1680 and 20 shillings a day thereafter, except for the years 1702–07 when it was fixed at 10 shillings a day.
The office of Paymaster of the Forces was abolished in 1836 and superseded with the formation of the post of Paymaster General.
List of Paymasters of the Forces
Portrait Name(s)Term of office Government Monarch(Reign) Sir Stephen Fox 18 March 1661 9 February 1676 Clarendon
Cabal
Danby ICharles II(1660–1685) Sir Henry Puckering, 3rd Baronet 9 February 1676 23 May 1679 // Sir Stephen Fox 23 May 1679 3 January 1680 The Chits Nicholas Johnsonand (?) William Fox (died 1680 aged 20)Unlikely, William Fox died in 1680 aged 20, as stated on his monument in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, which describes him as "born for their country and to honours, which the eldest, being Captain in the army, acquired by his fatigues over all England. William died April 17, 1680 aged 20". No mention is made of him having held the post of Paymaster, and as he predeceased his father, it must be assumed his father would have mentioned the fact, as he did on the monument of his other son Charles Fox, in Farley Church, Wiltshire. Quote from footnote 41 of 'Office of the Paymaster-General', in Survey of London: Volume 16, St Martin-in-The-Fields I: Charing Cross, ed. G H Gater and E P Wheeler (London, 1935), pp. 17-27. "Haydn's Book of Dignities gives Nicholas Johnson and Charles Fox. According to the Dict. Nat. Biog. Sir Stephen, on resigning his office, "contrived that his eldest son, Charles Fox, should share it along with Nicholas Johnson." This is incorrect. Nicholas Johnson shared the office with "William Fox, Esqr, second son of the said Sir Stephen Fox." (P.R.O., C. 66/3209, No. 8.) "His majestie hath granted the office of receiver and paymaster of his forces to Nicholas Johnson and William Fox, esqs." (Luttrell's Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, I, p. 30.)" 3 January 1680 20 April 1682(†Johnson)28 April 1682 Charles Fox 28 April 1682 26 December 1685 Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh 26 December 1685 22 December 1702 James II(1685–1688) Carmarthen–Halifax
Carmarthen
Whig Junto I
Pembroke William III and Mary II(1689–1694)William III(1694–1702)Godolphin–MarlboroughAnne(1702–1714)John Grubham Howe (Home troops only)withCharles Fox (1702–05)James Brydges (1705–13)Thomas Moore (1713–14) (Overseas troops)22 December 17023 October 1714 Oxford–Bolingbroke Sir Robert Walpole 3 October 1714 17 October 1715Townshend
Stanhope–Sunderland I
Stanhope–Sunderland IIGeorge I(1714–1727) Henry Clinton, 7th Earl of Lincoln 17 October 1715 11 June 1720 Sir Robert Walpole 11 June 1720 19 April 1721 Charles Cornwallis, 4th Baron Cornwallis 19 April 1721 20 January 1722Walpole–TownshendSpencer Compton(Baron Wilmington from 1728)15 March 172215 May 1730George II(1727–1760) Henry Pelham 15 May 1730 24 December 1743 Walpole
Carteret Thomas Winnington 24 December 1743 23 April 1746†Broad BottomWilliam Pitt the Elder7 May 1746 16 December 1755 Newcastle IDupplin Henry Vane, 1st Earl of DarlingtonandThomas Hay, Viscount Dupplin 16 December 1755 8 December 1756 Thomas Hay, Viscount DupplinandThomas Potter 8 December 1756 15 July 1757 Pitt–Devonshire
1757 CaretakerHenry Fox, 1st Baron Holland15 July 1757 12 June 1765 Pitt–NewcastleGeorge III(1760–1820) Bute
Grenville Charles Townshend 12 June 1765 21 August 1766 //
Rockingham I
Chatham North Frederick North, Lord NorthandGeorge Cooke 21 August 1766 9 December 1767// Townshend George CookeandThomas Townshend 9 December 1767 5 June 1768(†Cooke)17 June 1768 Richard Rigby 17 June 1768 10 April 1782 //
Grafton
North Edmund Burke 10 April 1782 1 August 1782 Rockingham II Isaac Barré 1 August 1782 16 April 1783 Shelburne Edmund Burke 16 April 1783 8 January 1784 Fox–North
Pitt the Younger I William Wyndham Grenville 8 January 1784 7 April 1784//Mulgrave William Wyndham GrenvilleandConstantine Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave 7 April 1784 2 September 1789 The Lord MulgraveandJames Graham, 3rd Duke of Montrose 2 September 1789 7 March 1791 Dudley RyderandThomas Steele 7 March 1791 5 July 1800 Thomas SteeleandGeorge Canning 5 July 1800 26 March 1801 Thomas SteeleandSylvester Douglas, 1st Baron Glenbervie 26 March 1801 3 January 1803Addington Thomas SteeleandJohn Hiley Addington 3 January 1803 7 July 1804 George RoseandLord Charles Somerset 7 July 1804 17 February 1806 Pitt the Younger II Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 1st Earl TempleandLord John Townshend 17 February 1806 4 April 1807 All the Talents Charles LongandLord Charles Somerset 4 April 1807 26 November 1813 Portland II
Perceval
Liverpool Charles LongandF. J. Robinson 26 November 1813 9 August 1817//Charles Long(Baron Farnborough from 1826)9 August 1817(continued)14 July 1826George IV(1820–1830) William Vesey Fitzgerald 14 July 1826 10 July 1828 //
Canningite Govt.Canning · Goderich
Wellington–Peel John Calcraft 10 July 1828 30 December 1830 // Lord John Russell 30 December 1830 30 December 1834 Whig Govt.Grey · Melbourne IWilliam IV(1830–1837) Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet 30 December 1834 28 April 1835 Peel I Sir Henry Parnell, 4th Baronet 28 April 1835 1 December 1836 Melbourne II Office merged into that of Paymaster General, 1836.
Paymaster of the Forces Abroad From 1702 to 1714, during the War of the Spanish Succession, there was a distinct Paymaster of the Forces Abroad, appointed in the same manner as the Paymaster. These were appointed to a special office to oversee the pay of Queen Anne's army in the Low Countries, and are not in the regular succession of Paymasters of the Forces. The salary of the position was 10 shillings a day. Colonel Thomas Moore was paymaster of the land forces in Minorca and in the garrisons of Dunkirk and Gibraltar and is not always counted among the Paymasters of the Forces Abroad.
Charles Fox (23 December 1702 – 10 May 1705) James Brydges (10 May 1705 – 4 September 1713) Col. Thomas Moore (4 September 1713 – 3 October 1714)
See also Master-General of the Ordnance British Army Paymaster General
Notes and references Notes
References