Andrew Stone (MP)

Andrew Stone (4 February 1703 – 17 December 1773) was an influential figure in British royal circle in the 18th century, and the brother of George Stone, Primate of All Ireland.

Biography

Stone, the eldest son of a London goldsmith, was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He became private secretary to the Duke of Newcastle in 1732, and was for many years on the most intimate and confidential terms both with the Duke and with his brother Henry Pelham. He was appointed Under-secretary of State in 1734, joint secretary to the Lords Justices in 1744, and was a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations from 1749 to 1761. He was also Secretary of Barbados from 1742, and registrar of Chancery in Jamaica from 1753, both of which offices he held until his death.

Despite being accused on Jacobite sympathies, Stone also gained a position of great personal influence with George II by whom he was made tutor and later secretary to Prince George, afterwards George III. On the accession of the latter to the throne, he was appointed treasurer to Queen Charlotte, and attaching himself to Lord Bute he became an influential member of the party known as The King's Friends, whose meetings were frequently held at his house. He promoted the preferment of his brother George, who went to Ireland as chaplain to the Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset.

He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Hastings from 1741 to 1761.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
• Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
• Concise Dictionary of National Biography

Further reading

• Martin, John Biddulph (1892). The Grasshopper in Lombard Street. ISBN 978-0-8337-2266-9.