Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire facts for kids

Quick facts for kids The Right Honourable The Earl of Buckinghamshire PC
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
In office 17 March 1801 – 12 May 1804
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	Henry Addington
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	The Earl Camden
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 23 June – 23 August 1812
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	The Earl of Liverpool
Preceded by	Spencer Perceval
Succeeded by	Charles Bathurst
Personal details
Born	6 May 1760 (1760-05-06) Hampden House, Great Hampden
Died	4 February 1816 (1816-02-05) (aged 55) Hamilton Place, London
Nationality	British
Political party	Tory
Spouses	(1) Margaretta Bourke (died 1796) (2) Hon. Eleanor Eden (1777-1851)
Alma mater	None

Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire, PC (6 May 1760 – 4 February 1816), styled Lord Hobart from 1793 to 1804, was a British Tory politician.

Life

Buckinghamshire was born at Hampden House, the son of George Hobart, 3rd Earl of Buckinghamshire and Albinia, daughter of Lord Vere Bertie, younger son of Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven. He was educated at Westminster School, London and later served in the American Revolutionary War. He acted as aide-de-camp to successive lord lieutenants of Ireland from 1784 onwards.

Political career

Buckinghamshire was a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Irish House of Commons for Portarlington from 1784 to 1790 and thereafter for Armagh Borough from 1790 to 1797. He sat also in the British House of Commons for the rotten borough of Bramber in 1788, a seat he held until 1790, and then for Lincoln from 1790 to 1796. In 1793 he was invested a member of the Privy Council, and appointed Governor of Madras. In 1798 he was recalled to England by the President of the Board of Control responsible for Indian affairs, Henry Dundas and summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father’s junior title of Baron Hobart. He later served as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1801 to 1804 when it was said he had "a better grasp of the local or colonial conditions, and a more active spirit than did some of his successors." He was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1805 and again in 1812, Postmaster General from 1806 to 1807 and President of the Board of Control from 1812 to 1816. Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, is named after Lord Buckinghamshire.

Family

Eleanor Agnes, Countess of Buckinghamshire, by John Hoppner

Lord Buckinghamshire married firstly Margaretta, daughter of Edmund Bourke, in 1792. They had one son (who died in infancy) and a daughter, Lady Sarah, who married Prime Minister Lord Goderich and was the mother of George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon. After Margaretta's death in 1796 he married secondly the Hon. Eleanor Agnes, daughter of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, in 1799. There were no children from this marriage. Lord Buckinghamshire died in February 1816 at the age of 55, after a fall from his horse. He was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew, George. Lady Buckinghamshire died in October 1851, aged 74.

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