Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/204

Fitzrichard extant in manuscript. For fuller particulars see Tanner's 'Bibl. Brit.,' p. 284 et seq. The statement that Fitzralph translated the Bible or parts of the Bible into Irish, though often repeated, rests simply upon a guess — given merely as a guess — of Foxe (Acts and Monuments, ii. 766, ed. 1854). [Authorities cited above.]  FITZRICHARD, GILBERT (d. 1115?). [See .] FITZROBERT, SIMON, bishop of Chichester (d. 1207). [See .]

FITZROY, AUGUSTUS HENRY, third (1735–1811), grandson of Charles (1683-1757), second duke and eldest surviving son of Lord Augustus Fitzroy (d. 28 May 1741), by Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel William Cosby of Strodbell in Ireland, governor of New York, was born 1 Oct. 1735, and educated at Westminster School and at Peterhouse, Cambridge, taking the degree of M.A. in 1753, as Earl of Euston. Stonehewer, the friend of Gray, was his tutor at Cambridge, and afterwards his private secretary and intimate friend. Grafton subsequently declined the degree of LL.D. usually conferred on its chancellor, from a dislike to subscribing the articles of the church of England. He was returned in December 1756 as member by the boroughs of Boroughbridge in Yorkshire and Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, when he chose the latter constituency. On 6 May 1757 he succeeded as third Duke of Grafton, and was at once created lord-lieutenant of Suffolk, a position which he held until 1763, when he was dismissed by Lord Bute, and again from 1769 to 1790. He was appointed in November 1756 as lord of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George III, but resigned the post early in June 1758. His first active appearance in politics was on the accession to power of Lord Bute, when he flung himself into opposition. At this time he was intimately allied with Lord Temple, and followed his lead by visiting Wilkes in the Tower in May 1763 'to hear from himself his own story and his defence, and to show that no influence ought to stop the means of every man's justifying himself from an accusation, though it should be of the most heinous nature,' but he offended Temple by refusing in that month to become bail for Wilkes. His rise in parliament was so rapid that when Pitt was summoned by the king to form a ministry in August 1763 he had it in contemplation to enlist Grafton as a member of his cabinet. In December of that year Horace Walpole records in his letters that the Duke of Grafton is much commended, and, although he had never been in office, he was now in the front rank of politics. Pitt was again called upon to form a ministry, when he named Grafton and himself as the principal secretaries of state ; but the projected administration fell through in consequence of Lord Temple's refusal to take office. The Marquis of Rockingham thereupon took the treasury, and Grafton became his secretary of state for the northern department (July 1765). Then, as ever, he was anxious to obtain Pitt's assistance, but the great commoner was not enamoured of the new cabinet, and especially objected to the Duke of Newcastle's inclusion in it. Weak as it was, without the support of the king or of Pitt, and without cohesion among themselves, the Rockingham ministry dragged on for some months. Grafton threw up the seals in May 1766, when he stated in the House of Lords that he had not gone out of office 'from a love of ease and indulgence to his private amusements, as had been falsely reported, but because they wanted strength, which one man only could supply ;' and that 'though he had carried a general's staff, he was ready to take up a mattock or spade under that able and great minister.' At the end of July all Grafton's colleagues followed his example, and Pitt was forced to take upon himself the cares of office. Grafton very reluctantly accepted the headship of the treasury, and Pitt, to the disgust of his friends, took a peerage and the privy seal (July 1766). With a view to strengthening the cabinet by the inclusion of the Duke of Bedford's party, the first lord endeavoured to obtain Lord Gower in lieu of Lord Egniont as first lord of the admiralty, but in this he was unsuccessful. The new ministry was soon involved in difficulty. Wilkes came to London, and on 1 Nov. 1766 addressed to Grafton a letter in which he professed loyalty and implored pardon, but on the advice of Chatham no notice was taken of the communication, and Wilkes thereupon repaired to Paris and sent a second communication on 12 Dec. The state of the East India Company presented even greater dangers to the new administration. The views of Conway and Charles Townshend were antagonistic to those of Chatham, and but for the latter's illness, Townshend would have been dismissed from office. Their defeat over the amount of the land tax was 'a most disheartening circumstance,' and when Townshend was taunted with the necessity of providing some means to recoup the reduction, he, 'without the concurrence of the rest of the cabinet, intimated that he had thought of a method of taxing America without giving offence, and the ministry found themselves