{{Short description|British politician (1691–1762)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}} [[File:George Bubb Dodington by Hans Hysing.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Dodington by Hans Hysing]]

'''George Bubb Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|PC}} (1691 – 28 July 1762) was a British Whig politician who represented Winchelsea and Bridgwater in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1715 to 1761.<ref>{{cite DNB|author=Stephen, Leslie|wstitle=Dodington, George Bubb|volume=15|pages=166–169}}</ref>

==Family and early life== Christened '''George Bubb''', he was the eldest son of Jeremiah Bubb of Foy, Herefordshire and his wife Mary Dodington, daughter of John Dodington of Dodington, Somerset. His father died in 1696 and he was taken under the care of his uncle George Dodington. He was educated at Winchester College in 1703 and matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford on 10 July 1707 aged 16. He was admitted at Lincoln's Inn in 1711 and undertook a Grand Tour from 1711 to 1713.<ref name = HOP>{{cite web| url =http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/bubb-george-1691-1762 | title=BUBB (afterwards DODDINGTON), George (?1691-1762), of Eastbury, Dorset. | publisher= History of Parliament Online (1715–1754)| access-date = 14 February 2019 }}</ref> ==Political career== {{Infobox UK legislation | short_title = Bubb's Name Act 1717 | type = Act | parliament = Parliament of Great Britain | long_title = An Act to enable George Bubb Esquire and his Issue Male to change their Surname to the Surname of Doddington. | year = 1717 | citation = 4 Geo. 1. c. ''1'' {{small|Pr.}} | introduced_commons = | introduced_lords = | territorial_extent = | royal_assent = 3 February 1718 | commencement = | expiry_date = | repeal_date = | amends = | replaces = | amendments = | repealing_legislation = | related_legislation = | status = | legislation_history = | theyworkforyou = | millbankhansard = | original_text = | revised_text = | use_new_UK-LEG = | UK-LEG_title = | collapsed = yes }} Bubb was returned as Member of Parliament for Winchelsea at the 1715 British general election. He was sent as envoy to Spain from 1715 to 1717. He changed his surname to Dodington by a private act of Parliament, '''{{visible anchor|Bubb's Name Act 1717}}''' (4 Geo. 1. c. ''1'' {{small|Pr.}}).<ref>[https://deedpolloffice.com/research/private-acts-parliament/1717-4-Geo-1-1 Deed Poll Office: Private Act of Parliament 1717 (4 Geo. 1). c. 1]</ref> In 1720 he was appointed Clerk of the Pells for Ireland for life. His uncle died in 1720 and left him his estate. He was Lord Lieutenant of Somerset from 1721 to 1744. At the 1722 British general election he was returned as MP for Bridgwater.

He was taken up by Robert Walpole, who made him a Lord of the Treasury in 1724. He addressed an adulatory verse letter to Walpole in 1726, in which he praised loyalty as the supreme political virtue. He married Katherine Behan in secret, some time around 1725. He was returned again for Bridgwater at the 1727 British general election.<ref name=HOP/> Enormously rich, he became a friend of Frederick, Prince of Wales, who took advantage of their acquaintance to obtain loans that helped clear his debts, and, on being thrown out of St James's Palace by his father, King George II, moved into a London house belonging to Dodington.

Dodington was returned for Bridgwater again in 1734 when he was also returned for Melcombe Regis, and in 1741 when he was also returned for Appleby, choosing to remain at Bridgewater on both occasions. He was appointed Treasurer of the Navy in 1744 and became Privy Councillor on 3 January 1745. He was returned again for Bridgwater in 1747 and was treasurer of the chamber to the Prince of Wales from 1749 to 1751.<ref name=HOP/>

[[File:Paul Sandby - Caricature of George Bubb Dodington and Sir Thomas Robinson - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|1761 caricature of Dodington and Sir Thomas Robinson by Paul Sandby]]

Alongside his parliamentary roles, Dodington—together with the Earl of Chesterfield—backed opposition journalism and historiography. He retained William Guthrie and James Ralph for the Country Whig press (notably ''Old England'') and then sponsored a paired historical enterprise: Guthrie’s ''A General History of England'' (1744–51) and Ralph’s ''History of England…'' (1744–46).<ref>{{cite book |last=Okie |first=Laird |title=Augustan Historical Writing: Historiography in England, 1688–1750 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham, MD |year=1991 |pages=126, 156}}</ref> When Dodington entered the Broad Bottom administration in 1744, Ralph received a Treasury pension of £200 per year; in 1753, under the Pelhams, he was granted £300 to cease pamphleteering.<ref>{{cite book |last=Okie |first=Laird |title=Augustan Historical Writing: Historiography in England, 1688–1750 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham, MD |year=1991 |pages=157, 173}}</ref> Ralph’s later opposition journalism included the 1753 weekly The Protester: before its launch, Dodington assured Ralph he would be “thoroughly protected … by those who would own him in both Houses,” and he later helped arrange the Treasury settlement via Lord Hartington after an introduction by David Garrick, on condition that Ralph cease political writing.<ref>George Bubb Dodington, ''The Diary of the Late George Bubb Dodington, Baron of Melcombe Regis'' (London: E. Easton, 1784), p. 218, https://books.google.com/books?id=v_MEAAAAYAAJ.</ref><ref>Elizabeth R. McKinsey, “James Ralph: The Professional Writer Comes of Age,” ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 117, no. 1 (1973): 76, JSTOR 985948.</ref>

At the 1754 British general election, Dodington was returned for Melcombe Regis. He was Treasurer of the Navy again from December 1755 to November 1756. He was created Baron Melcombe on 6 April 1761.<ref name=HOP/>

==Collector and salonist==

Dodington had many contacts with artists and was a collector, purchasing antiquities via Cardinal Albani in Rome.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Connoisseurs and Secret Agents|last=Lewis|first=Lesley|publisher=Chatto and Windus|year=1961|location=London}}</ref> His house at Hammersmith, known as 'La Trappe' (an ironic reference to a Trappist monastery) was the focus of a lively political and cultural salon of supporters of Frederick, Prince of Wales whose palace at Kew was located just across the river. It was designed by the neo-Palladian architect Roger Morris who had been connected with the circle of Lord Burlington<ref>{{Cite book|title=Vitruvius Britannicus II|last=\Wolfe and Gandon|year=1739|location=London|pages=plates 28 and 29}}</ref> and the sculpture gallery was designed by the Italian architect and firework display designer Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hornsby|first=Clare|date=1991|title=Antiquarian extravagance in Hammersmith: the sculpture gallery of George Bubb Dodington|journal=Apollo|volume=133|issue=358 pp 410-414}}</ref> ==Activities as a spy== Dodington is said to have been involved in a spy-ring, collecting valuable information about Jacobite activities. In 1761, following the accession of Frederick's son to the throne as George III, he was created '''Baron Melcombe'''.

Historian N.A.M. Rodger describes Dodington as an "indefatigable schemer" on behalf of his friends and interests of the time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rodger|first=N.A.M.|title=The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy|publisher=Naval Institute Press|year=1986|location=Annapolis, Maryland|page=31|isbn=0870219871}}</ref> Dodington is depicted in William Hogarth's 1761 engraving ''Five Orders of Periwigs''. ==Diarist== His diary was published posthumously in 1784 by Henry Penruddocke Wyndham.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe}} {{Wikisource1911Enc|Melcombe, George Bubb Doddington, Baron}} *[http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/authors/pers00090.shtml George Bubb Dodington] at the [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/ Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA)] *{{UK National Archives ID}}

{{S-start}} {{s-par|gb}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Winchelsea | years = 1715–1722 | with = Robert Bristow | before = Robert Bristow | before2 = George Dodington | after = Robert Bristow | after2 = Thomas Townshend }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Bridgwater | years = 1722–1754 | with = Thomas Palmer 1722–1727, 1731–1735 | with2 = Sir Halswell Tynte, Bt 1727–1731 | with3 = Sir Charles Wyndham, Bt 1735–1741 | with4 = Vere Poulett 1741–1747 | with5 = Peregrine Poulett 1747–1753 | with6 = Robert Balch 1753–1754 | before = Thomas Palmer | before2 = William Pitt | after = Robert Balch | after2 = The Earl of Egmont }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis | years = 1734–1735 | with = Edward Tucker | with2 = Thomas Pearse | with3 = George Dodington | before =Sir James Thornhill | before2 = Edward Tucker | before3 = Thomas Pearse | before4 = George Dodington | after = Edward Tucker | after2 = Thomas Pearse | after3 = George Dodington | after4 = John Tucker }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Appleby | years = 1741 | with = Sir John Ramsden, Bt | before = Sir John Ramsden, Bt | before2 = Walter Plumer | after = Sir John Ramsden, Bt | after2 = Sir Charles Wyndham, Bt }} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis | years = 1754–1761 | with = Welbore Ellis | with2 = Lord John Cavendish | with3 = John Tucker | before = Welbore Ellis | before2 = George Dodington | before3 = Edward Hungate Beaghan | before4 = Lord George Cavendish | after = John Tucker | after2 = Sir Francis Dashwood, Bt | after3 = John Olmius | after4 = Richard Glover }} {{s-dip}} {{s-bef|before= Lord Bingley}} {{s-ttl|title= British Ambassador to Spain |years=1715–1717 }} {{s-aft|after= John Chetwynd}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | title=Treasurer of the Navy | before=Sir John Rushout, Bt | after=Henry Bilson-Legge| years=1744–1749}} {{succession box | title=Treasurer of the Navy | before=George Grenville | after=George Grenville| years=1756}} {{s-hon}} {{s-bef | rows=2 | before=George Dodington}} {{s-ttl | title=Lord Lieutenant of Somerset | years=1720–1744}} {{s-aft | after=The Earl Poulett}} |- {{s-ttl | title=Vice-Admiral of Somerset | years=1720–1762}} {{s-vac | next=The Earl of Egmont}} {{s-reg|gb}} {{s-new|creation}} {{s-ttl|title=Baron Melcombe|years=1761–1762}} {{s-non|reason=Extinct}} {{S-end}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melcombe, George Dodington, 1st Baron}} Category:1691 births Category:1762 deaths Category:18th-century spies Category:18th-century English diarists Category:Barons in the Peerage of Great Britain Category:Peers of Great Britain created by George III Category:Lord-lieutenants of Somerset Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Category:Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain Category:British MPs 1715–1722 Category:British MPs 1722–1727 Category:British MPs 1727–1734 Category:British MPs 1734–1741 Category:British MPs 1741–1747 Category:British MPs 1747–1754 Category:British MPs 1754–1761 Category:Ambassadors of the Kingdom of Great Britain to Spain Category:People educated at Winchester College Category:Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford Category:English collectors Category:English spies