Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/209

Fitzroy . Upon the discovery of gold Fitzroy steadily pressed on the home authorities the advisability of establishing a mint at Sydney. His influence was also used on behalf of a favourable consideration for the Constitutional Act which Wentworth had passed through the colonial legislature in 1853. He was made K.C.B. in June 1854. His departure, 17 Jan. 1855, was greatly regretted, and when news of his death reached the colony the legislature adjourned. Fitzroy was present at the opening of Sydney University, and under his auspices the first railway was commenced, the first stone of the Fitzroy Dock laid, and the Exchange begun.

He died in London on 16 Feb. 1858. He was twice married: first, on 11 March 1820, to Lady Mary Lennox, eldest daughter of the fourth Duke of Richmond, who died 7 Dec. 1847; secondly, on 11 Dec. 1855, to Margaret Gordon.

 FITZROY, GEORGE, (1665–1716), third and youngest son of Charles II, by Barbara, countess of Castlemaine [see Villiers, Barbara, ], born at Oxford in December 1665, was created Baron of Pontefract in the county of York, Viscount Falmouth in the county of Cornwall, and Earl of Northumberland on 1 Oct. 1674. He was employed on secret service at Venice in 1682, and on his return to England was created Duke of Northumberland (6 April 1683), and elected and installed knight of the Garter (10 Jan. and 8 April 1684). He served as a volunteer on the side of the French at the siege of Luxembourg in the summer of the same year, returning to England in the autumn. Evelyn, who met him at dinner at Sir Stephen Fox's soon after his return, describes him as 'of all his majesty's children the most accomplished and worth the owning,' and is 'extremely handsome and well shaped.' He particularly praises his skill in horsemanship (Diary, 24 Oct. and 18 Dec. 1684). He commanded the second troop of horse guards in 1687, was appointed a lord of his majesty's bedchamber in December 1688, constable of Windsor Castle in 1701, and succeeded the Earl of Oxford as colonel of the royal regiment of horse March 1702-3 On 10 Jan. 1709-10 he obtained the rank of lieutenant-general, waa sworn of the privy council on 7 April 1713, and was appointed lord-lieutenant of Surrey on 9 Oct. 1714. He was also chief butler of England. Frogmore House, Berkshire, was one of his seats. He died without issue at Epsom on 28 June 1716. He married in 1686 Catherine, daughter of Robert Wheatley, a poulterer, of Bracknell, Berkshire, and relict of Robert Lucy of Charlecote, whom he is said, with the assistance of his brother, Henry Fitzroy [q. v.], first duke of Grafton, to have privately conveyed abroad soon afterwards.

 FITZROY, GEORGE HENRY, fourth (1760–1844) son of Augustus Henry Fitzroy [q. v.], third duke, by his first wife, was born 14 Jan. 1760. As Earl of Euston he was sent at eighteen years of age to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he contracted an intimate friendship with the younger Pitt. He proceeded M.A. in 1799. He was afterwards for a time Pitt's warm partisan in the House of Commons, and for many years his colleague in the representation of the university. In 1784 he married the Lady Maria Charlotte Waldegrave, second daughter of James, second earl of Waldegrave. Euston entered parliament in 1784. The conservatives had resolved to attack a number of whig seats, including those of Cambridge University. The sitting members were Lord John Townshend and James (afterwards Chief Justice) Mansfield. The election excited great interest throughout the country, and the return of Pitt and Euston was hailed with enthusiasm by the tory party. The numbers were: Pitt, 351; Euston, 299; Townshend, 278; and Mansfield, 181. Euston's career in the House of Commons was useful, but not brilliant. At the outset he supported the government of Pitt, but he rarely addressed the house. He was appointed lord-lieutenant of Suffolk in 1790, receiver-general in the courts of king's bench and common pleas, and king's gamekeeper at Newmarket. For some years he was ranger of Hyde Park and of St. James's Park. In addition to these offices, conferred upon him by the prime minister, he was hereditary ranger of Whittlebury Forest, recorder of Thetford, a trustee of the Hunterian Museum, president of the Eclectic Society of London, &c. Twice, in 1790 and 1807, his seat at Cambridge was stoutly contested, on the latter occasion by Lord Palmer-