William Wildman Shute Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, PC (15 January 1717 – 1 February 1793), was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons for 38 years from 1740 to 1778. He was best known for his two periods as Secretary at War during Britain's involvement in the Seven Years War and American War of Independence.
Background Barrington was the eldest son of John Barrington, 1st Viscount Barrington, by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir William Daines. The Hon. Daines Barrington, Rear-Admiral the Hon. Samuel Barrington and the Right Reverend the Hon. Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham, were his younger brothers. He received a private education under a tutor at Dalston, Robert Graham, whose family later established a political dynasty.Historic Manuscripts Commission, Egmont Diary, vol.3, p. 268. Sent to be further educated at Geneva, Switzerland in 1735 he spent three years at the alpine university; having inherited the estates and title in 1734, he spent some time travelling on the Grand Tour. After coming of age in January 1738, he returned home, arriving in England that February.Shute Barrington, Political life, p. 3.
Early political career As Barrington's title was in the Peerage of Ireland it did not entitle him to a seat in the British House of Lords. In March 1740 he was returned to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed (a seat his father had represented from 1714 to 1723). Joining the opposition benches, Barrington took his seat in 1741 for Walpole's dismissal, voting down a bill for manning the fleet on the grounds it would increase the 'Court Whigs' influence on the coast.
With the exception of Lord Carteret, the energetic foreign minister, Barrington, having deserted the whigs found his new allies pitiable reformers. None of the corruption went punished, as the promised 'new broom' failed to materialise. The Hanoverian Ascendancy was magnified by the military exploits of allies Hanoverian Legion that lionised Carteret's performance and the King's role in the warfare, but at considerable expense to the Treasury. Barrington was among the opposition peers consulted for a new ministry in 1744 between the Cobhamites and the incumbent Pelhamites, removing Carteret, now earl Granville, and his Tory friends from office. In February he had voted down two bills, one to suspend Habeas Corpus, on the grounds that the ministry had not proven the rumours of an impending French invasion. Tory opposition led by Pitt stormed out of the chamber in protest at Barrington's speech. A decisive move came when he identified with Lord Cobham. Grenville was impressed by the young MP; refusing the offer of a 'lord of trade' the future peer could do "whatever he pleases".Grenville Papers, vol. 1, p. 34.
Grenvillite Whig: a war departmental career A critical year was 1744 for the young aspiring minister: perhaps the pressure of Jacobitism, the return of the Army from Flanders, and the whiff of Jacobite conspiracy forced a change of allegiance. For on 23 January in the first of such votes, Barrington elucidated his principled support for a Standing Army. The following month he voted with the Treasury money bill. He steered a flagship policy National Militia bill through parliament that excluded Catholics and Quakers. He reformed the process of Charitable parochial relief, rather than requiring its total abolition, although by 1782 he took a Pittite view of reform.
Having taken his seat in the Irish House of Lords in 1745, still only twenty-eight year old, he was appointed one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, later being forced to write a vindication of his conduct of affairs during the War of Jenkins' Ear in which large sums went missing from the Treasury. In 1746 Barrington was one of the 'managers' of the impeachment of the Highland general Lord Lovat, and lord of the Admiralty in February 1746.Owen, Pelhams, p. 293. But with the conflict brought to a successful conclusion in 1748, Barrington seconded a motion that required the King to demobilise 16,000 Hanoverian soldiers in peacetime. Barrington was also responsible for the introduction of the concept of half-pay to the navy, as a means of effecting semi-retirement for laid off officers. His Commons bill enumerated 20,000 sailors for redundancy. This 'tory' bill was vigorously opposed by Lord Egmont, and the Pelhamites defeated it in the Commons. A Quarantine bill was drafted to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in the fleet, as well as to blockade its importation onto the mainland. Barrington's subsequent Paper on the Plague helped to establish a House of Recovery for the Sick at Gray's Inn, which was extended to the dying and suffering in London.
Secretary at War
On Pelham's death in March 1754, the Duke of Newcastle was in line to succeed as First Lord of the Treasury. On becoming Member of Parliament for Plymouth, Barrington applied directly for a treasury bench seat, on the recommendation of Henry Fox. Pelham had already gone to the palace to 'kiss hands'. On the understanding of a Treasury seat for the public economist, Barrington succeeded Sir Thomas Robinson as the Master of the Great Wardrobe in 1755, when he was granted a seat as Privy Counsellor. At Newcastle House in September Barrington was informed the arrangement was squared with the king, but Cumberland, the Commander-in-Chief at Windsor, did not know of it.Newcastle to Hardwicke, 26 September 1755, BL, Add 32859, ff. 219–221. He was appointed as Secretary at War in the Duke of Newcastle cabinet. The supremacy of cabinet government over Wardrobe, Treasury over commander-in-chief in the realm of the patronage of political appointments can be dated from Newcastle's office tenure. Barrington held the post for the next six years throughout the Seven Years' War, despite the Byzantine logistics, and notorious corruption at the war office owing to his scrupulous attitude towards corrupt practices revealed in his letters.These are kept in the Huntington Library, California Shute; Barrington, p. 19.
Shortly after the new ministry had come to office, Minorca fell. Barrington ordered the 7th regiment to reinforce the Gibraltar garrison on 21 March 1756. The cabinet insisted the rock must be held as a strategic naval base; Barrington's experience told him this, switching the Governor's detachment, a battalion onto Byng's flagship.Letters from Viscount Barrington to Lord St Philips, Governor of Gibraltar, 21 and 28 March 1756 - for the contradictory orders; Shute Barrington, p. 23. In the event the garrison could not spare the men: facing the threat of an attack by the Toulon fleet, Barrington was clear in a subsequent letter that Gibraltar must not be left undefended. But Byng's subsequent disgrace and execution left Barrington's loyalties in doubt. He had shown no disobedience to His Majesty the King, when General Fowke was tried at court martial for allegedly abandoning his post. Cumberland was disgusted at the loss of Port Mahon, its naval base, and the shame brought upon the military's discipline and reputation, adding to the Secretary's political problems; Barrington consequently clung to Newcastle's patronage at least in part for self-preservation. Modern historians have laid the blame at barrington's door for the confusion that ensued from the contradictory orders; but much of the contention has derived from his belated conversion to Toryism, and embracing of a Pittite bluewater policy with all its attenuated risks.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister insisted on quizzing Granby on the battlefield with young Barrington in tow learning how to disappoint generals for the future. During the Seven Years War, his brothers, Admiral Sir Samuel Barrington and Major-General John Barrington, who led the assault expeditionary force that captured Guadeloupe, a French colony, were both active in the Caribbean.White-Spunner, Horse Guards, p. 238. Barrington remained a staunch friend and ally of Newcastle throughout, always grateful for the confidence, but never afraid to differ from the duke "to whom I owe more compliance than to any man living, because he is the only subject, to whom i have a real obligation. I must do his Grace the justice...."Barrington to General Conway, 8 June 1759; Shute Barrington, pp. 17, 49. The previous October he had advised Field Marshall Ligioner, by now a Viscount, that his brother was over-promoted "I again deprecate Colonel Barrington being so near the command; and i entreat of your Lordship to recommend some other Major-General to His Majesty, in case Mr Boscawen should be excused."Barrington to Ligonier, 14 October 1758. In the light of his compassion, the story of Colonel Monro's Arabian horse seemed typical of the man's discreet delicacy, nursing his gifted steed back to health, but putting its ownership into trust. Barrington was always careful to avoid accusations of taking sweeteners or inducements for corrupt practices; sufficiently astute to defer on matters of ethical credibility to others.Barrington to Sir Hector Monro, 16 May 1764. The cost of the war was ruinous; and Barrington refused to accede to the duke's demand to buy the Election of 1761.Mauduit, Considerations on the War; Shute, p. 100.
Tory George III: Barrington and a new administration On 12 March 1761 he was transferred to the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, just ten days before the dissolution of parliament. In 1762 the Tory Prime Minister proposed Barrington Treasurer of the Navy, which he accepted, but remained close to the duke, who declined to oppose the new ministry. Senior cabinet ministers may have met in autumn 1762 at Beckett, his ancestral seat. For he was probably influential in the reconciliation between Newcastle and Cumberland, long embittered rivals, because in a letter to Barrington on 11 July he had signed off "your affectionate friend".Barrington papers MSS; Ilchester papers, Letters to Henry Fox, p. 116. Moreover, he strongly advised his whig friend to join with the Tories.Shute Barrington, p. 71. Barrington's membership of Bute's ministry, in spite of his friendship with Newcastle, who was at the height of his powers, was, he claimed, on the basis of being a principled "servant of the Crown"; for the main achievement of Bute's time in office was the Peace of Paris in April 1763. On principle he would not oppose the ministry from within, and yet would not resign to suit his friend, mentor and patron."Lord Bute answered, he knew i was a man of honour,...", Barrington claimed in his Paper Shute Barrington, p. 73. Bute suggested enlarging the government with a Foxite Coalition; but Barrington, who long been a friend of Charles James Fox felt "a coolness between us".
The Duke of Devonshire's resignation, he feared, would destabilise the administration.3 November 1762, paper transcribed; Shute Barrington, p. 75. And so it did precipitating in Newcastle's words, "such a clamour arising against the Ministry".Newcastle to Barrington, 9 November 1762, Shute, ibid, p. 79. At a meeting at Newcastle House, London, on 11 November the duke pressed Barrington to end his support, knowing the ministry would fall, which it did in April 1763. Yet while in office, the Viscount never visited Claremont, upheld bipartisan principles, and remained on friendly terms with Bute, Grenville, Egremont and Halifax.