Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley

{{Short description|British politician}} {{Use British English|date=May 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]] | name = The Lord Bexley | honorific_suffix = [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]] [[Royal Society|FRS]] [[Society of Antiquaries of London|FSA]] | image = Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley.jpg | caption = Portrait by [[Sir Thomas Lawrence]] | order1 = [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] | term_start1 = 12 May 1812 | term_end1 = 31 January 1823 | monarch1 = [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]] [[George IV of the United Kingdom|George IV]] | prime_minister1 = [[Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool|The Earl of Liverpool]] | predecessor1 = [[Spencer Perceval]] | successor1 = [[F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich|F. J. Robinson]] | order2 = [[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]] | term_start2 = 13 February 1823 | term_end2 = 26 January 1828 | monarch2 = [[George IV of the United Kingdom|George IV]] | prime_minister2 = [[Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool|The Earl of Liverpool]] [[George Canning]] [[F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich|Viscount Goderich]] | predecessor2 = [[Charles Bathurst]] | successor2 = [[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen|The Earl of Aberdeen]] | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1766|4|29}} | birth_place = [[Bloomsbury]], [[Middlesex]], England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1851|2|8|1766|4|29}} | death_place = [[Foots Cray]], Kent, England | party = [[Tory (political faction)|Tory]] | alma_mater = [[Christ Church, Oxford]] | spouse = Catherine Isabella Eden (1778–1810) }}

'''Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|PC|FRS|FSA}} (29 April 1766 – 8 February 1851) was an English politician, and one of the longest-serving [[Chancellor of the Exchequer|Chancellors of the Exchequer]] in British history.

==Background and education== The fifth son of [[Henry Vansittart]] (died 1770), the [[Governor of Bengal]], Vansittart was born in [[Bloomsbury]], [[Middlesex]], and raised in [[Bray, Berkshire]]. Educated at [[Christ Church, Oxford]], he took his degree in 1787, and was [[Call to the Bar|called to the bar]] at [[Lincoln's Inn]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} From the early 1770s he was living with his mother at 60 Crooms Hill, [[Greenwich]].

==Political career== [[Vansittart]] began his public career by writing [[pamphlet]]s in defence of the administration of [[William Pitt the Younger|William Pitt]], especially on its financial side, and in May 1796 became Member of Parliament for [[Hastings (UK Parliament constituency)|Hastings]], retaining his seat until July 1802, when he was returned for [[Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency)|Old Sarum]]. In February 1801 he was sent on a diplomatic errand to [[Copenhagen]], and shortly after his return was appointed joint [[Secretary to the Treasury]], a position which he retained until the resignation of [[Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth|Henry Addington]]'s ministry in April 1804. Owing to the influence of his friend, the [[Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover|Duke of Cumberland]], he became [[Chief Secretary for Ireland]] under Pitt in January 1805, resigning his office in the following September. With Addington, now Viscount Sidmouth, he joined the government of [[Charles James Fox]] and [[William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville|Lord Grenville]] as Secretary to the Treasury in February 1806, leaving office with Sidmouth just before the fall of the ministry in March 1807.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

During these and the next few years Vansittart's reputation as a financier was gradually rising. In 1809 he proposed and carried without opposition in the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] thirty-eight resolutions on financial questions, and only his loyalty to Sidmouth prevented him from joining the cabinet of [[Spencer Perceval]] as [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] in October 1809. He opposed an early resumption of cash payments in 1811, and became Chancellor of the Exchequer when the [[Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool|Earl of Liverpool]] succeeded Perceval in May 1812. Having forsaken Old Sarum, he had represented [[Helston (UK Parliament constituency)|Helston]] from November 1806 to June 1812; and after being member for [[East Grinstead (UK Parliament constituency)|East Grinstead]] for a few weeks, was returned for [[Harwich (UK Parliament constituency)|Harwich]] in October 1812.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

== Chancellor of the Exchequer == When Vansittart became [[Chancellor]] of the Exchequer the country was burdened with heavy taxation and an enormous [[debt]]. Nevertheless, the continuance of the [[Napoleonic Wars]] compelled him to increase the customs duties and other taxes, and in 1813 he introduced a complicated scheme for dealing with the [[sinking fund]]. In 1816, after the conclusion of peace, a large decrease in taxation was generally desired, and there was an outcry when the Chancellor proposed only to reduce, not to abolish, the property or [[income tax]]. The abolition of this tax, however, was carried in parliament, and Vansittart was also obliged to remit the extra tax on [[malt]], meeting a large deficiency principally by borrowing. He devoted considerable attention to effecting real or supposed economies with regard to the [[national debt]]. He carried an elaborate scheme for handing over the payment of [[navy|naval]] and [[army|military]] pensions to contractors, who would be paid a fixed annual sum for forty-five years; but no one was found willing to undertake this contract, although a modified plan on the same lines was afterwards adopted.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Vansittart became very unpopular in the country, and he resigned his office in December 1822. His system of finance was severely criticised by [[William Huskisson]], [[Tierney]], [[Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux|Brougham]], Hume and [[David Ricardo|Ricardo]]. On his resignation [[Liverpool]] offered Vansittart the post of [[Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster]]. Accepting this offer in February 1823, he was raised to the peerage as '''Baron Bexley''', of Bexley in the County of [[Kent]], in March,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=17896 |date=15 February 1823 |page=251 }}</ref> and granted a pension of £3000 a year. He resigned in January 1828. In the [[House of Lords]], Bexley took very little part in public business, although he introduced the Spitalfields Weavers Bill in 1823, and voted for [[Catholic Emancipation]] in 1824. He took a good deal of interest in the [[British Columbia|British]] and Foreign Bible Mission,{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} the [[Church Missionary Society]] and kindred bodies, funded [[Kenyon College|Kenyon college and seminary]] on the [[United States|US]] western frontier (the seminary is now named [[Bexley Hall]] in his honour) and assisted in founding [[King's College London]].<ref name="bch">[http://www1.kenyon.edu/tour/bexley.phtml Bexley and Coburn Halls] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901103921/http://www1.kenyon.edu/tour/bexley.phtml |date=1 September 2006 }} at Kenyon College website. Retrieved on 8 September 2006.</ref> He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1822.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://royalsociety.org/dserve/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27vansittart%27%29| title= Library and Archive catalog|publisher= Royal Society|access-date= 4 August 2012}}</ref> He was also one of the vice-presidents of the [[American Colonization Society]], whose aim was to repatriate African freedmen in the United States to the [[Africa]]n continent.<ref>''The African Repository'', American Colonization Society, 1842, Volumes 18–19, p. 54 [https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_African_Repository/xFk4AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=lord%20bexley&pg=RA2-PA54&printsec=frontcover]</ref>

==Family== Lord Bexley married Catherine Isabella (1778–1810), daughter of [[William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland]], in July 1806. He withdrew from public life in the spring of 1809 to take her on rest cures at [[Malvern, Worcestershire|Malvern]] and [[Torquay]].<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/articleHL/28105?docPos=324&anchor=match ''Vansittart, Nicholas, first Baron Bexley (1766–1851), politician'', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.]</ref> The marriage was childless. He died at [[Foots Cray]], Kent, on 8 February 1851. As he had no issue the title became extinct on his death. {{Infobox COA wide |image = Bexley Achievement.png |crest = An eagle's head, couped at the neck, between two wings elevated and displayed sable, the whole resting on two crosses patée argent. |escutcheon = Ermine, an eagle displayed sable, on a chief gules a ducal coronet or between two crosses patée argent. |supporters = Dexter, a horse regardant argent, gorged with a ducal coronet or; and pendent therefrom by a gold chain, a shield sable, charged with an ostrich feather argent, quilled and escrolled, gold (allusive to the badge or cognizance of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster). Sinister, an eagle regardant, wings elevated and displayed sable, gorged with a ducal coronet, and pendent therefrom a portcullis or. |motto = GRATA QUIES (Grateful Repose) <ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland. |date=1840}}</ref>}}

==Legacy== The Australian explorer [[Phillip Parker King]] named one of the bays on the [[Kimberley coastline (Western Australia)|coast of Kimberley]] in [[Western Australia]] "[[Vansittart Bay]]" after Lord Bexley.<ref>{{Cite web| url=https://greatescapecruises.com.au/location/vansittart-bay/ | title=Vansittart Bay | publisher=Great Escape Cruises | accessdate=7 May 2022 | quote="Vansittart Bay was named after the Chancellor of Exchequer by early explorer Phillip Parker King" }}</ref>

==Archives== There are nine volumes of Vansittart's papers in the [[British Library]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==References== {{reflist}} ;Attribution *{{EB1911|wstitle=Bexley, Nicholas Vansittart|volume=3}} *{{cite DNB|wstitle=Vansittart, Nicholas|first=William|last= Carr|volume=58}}

== External links == {{Commons category|Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley}} * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-nicholas-vansittart | Nicholas Vansittart }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20081026183013/http://windsorpubs.info/vansittart_arms.htm Vansittart Arms] – named after Nicholas, 1st Baron Bexley

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