Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon

For his grandson, see: Thomas Spring Rice, 2nd Baron Monteagle of Brandon

The Right Honourable The Lord Monteagle of Brandon PC FRS
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 18 April 1835 – 26 August 1839
Monarch	William IV Victoria
Prime Minister	The Viscount Melbourne
Preceded by	Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Succeeded by	Francis Baring
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
In office 5 June 1834 – 14 November 1834
Monarch	William IV
Prime Minister	The Viscount Melbourne
Preceded by	Edward Smith-Stanley
Succeeded by	The Duke of Wellington
Personal details
Born	8 February 1790 (2013-05-14UTC10:37:22)
Died	17 February 1866 (2013-05-14UTC10:37:23)
Nationality	British
Political party	Whig
Spouse(s)	(1) Lady Theodosia Pery (d. 1839) (2) Marianne Marshall
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, PC, FRS (8 February 1790-7 February 1866) was a British Whig politician, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1835 to 1839.

Background

Spring-Rice was one of the three children of Stephen Edward Rice (d.1831), of Mount Trenchard, Co. Limerick, and Catherine Spring, daughter and heiress of Thomas Spring of Ballycrispin and Castlemain, County Kerry, a descendant of the Spring Baronets. He was a great grandson of Sir Stephen Rice (1637–1715), Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer and a leading Jacobite, and Sir Maurice FitzGerald, 14th Knight of Kerry. His only married sister, Mary, was the mother of the Catholic converts Aubrey Thomas de Vere, poet, and the Liberal Member of Parliament, Sir Stephen de Vere, 4th Baronet. Spring-Rice was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later studied law at Lincoln's Inn, but was not called to the Bar.

Political career

He was elected to Parliament for Limerick City in 1820, and then sat for Cambridge from 1832 to 1839. He was Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department under George Canning and Lord Goderich in 1827 and then served as joint Secretary to the Treasury from 1830 to 1834 under Lord Grey. In June 1834 Grey appointed Spring Rice Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, with a seat in the cabinet, a post he retained when Lord Melbourne became Prime Minister in July. The Whig government fell in November 1834, but returned to office under Melbourne already in April the following year. Spring Rice was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, a post he held until 1839. However, he was disappointed in not being elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1835 and 1838, when the office was vacant. In 1839 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Monteagle of Brandon, in the County of Kerry, a title intended earlier for his ancestor Sir Stephen Rice. Lord Monteagle of Brandon was also Comptroller of the Exchequer from 1835 to 1865. He differed from the government as regards the exchequer control over the treasury, and the abolition of the old exchequer was already determined upon when he died.

Spring Rice was a dogmatic figure, described by Lord Melbourne as "too much given to details and possessed of no broad views".

Family

Lord Monteagle of Brandon was married twice. He married firstly Theodosia, daughter of Edmund Pery, 1st Earl of Limerick, in 1811. They had five sons and three daughters. After his first wife's death in 1839 he married secondly Marianne, daughter of John Marshall, in 1841. Lord Monteagle of Brandon died in February 1866, aged 75. He was succeeded in the barony by his grandson Thomas Spring Rice, the son of his eldest son Hon. Stephen Edmund Spring Rice (1814–1865). Lord Monteagle of Brandon's second son Hon. Thomas William Spring Rice was the father of the diplomat Sir Cecil Spring Rice, British Ambassador to the United States from 1912 to 1918. A monument still stands today in the People's Park in Limerick, in honour of Spring Rice, who was well regarded locally. His statue adorns a tall column at the centre of a public park.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Hon. John Vereker	Member of Parliament for Limerick 1820 – 1832	Succeeded by William Roche David Roche (representation increased to two members 1832)
Preceded by Frederick William Trench The Marquess of Graham	Member of Parliament for Cambridge 1832 – 1839 With: George Pryme	Succeeded by George Pryme John Manners-Sutton
Political offices
Preceded by Spencer Perceval	Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department 1827	Succeeded by William Yates Peel
Preceded by Joseph Planta	Joint Secretary to the Treasury 1830 – 1834	Succeeded by Francis Baring
Preceded by Lord Stanley	Secretary of State for War and the Colonies 1834	Succeeded by The Earl of Aberdeen
Preceded by Sir Robert Peel, Bt.	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1835 – 1839	Succeeded by Francis Baring
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron Monteagle of Brandon 1839 – 1866	Succeeded by Thomas Spring Rice
Academic offices
Preceded by Anthony Ashley-Cooper	President of the Royal Statistical Society 1845–1847	Succeeded by Charles Wentworth-FitzWilliam