George Tierney

The Right Honourable George Tierney
Treasurer of the Navy
In office 1803–1804
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	Henry Addington
Preceded by	Charles Bragge
Succeeded by	George Canning
President of the Board of Control
In office 1806–1807
Monarch	George III
Prime Minister	The Lord Grenville
Preceded by	Thomas Grenville
Succeeded by	Hon. Robert Dundas
Master of the Mint
In office 1827–1828
Monarch	George IV
Prime Minister	George Canning The Viscount Goderich
Preceded by	Hon. William Wellesley-Pole
Succeeded by	John Charles Herries
Personal details
Born	(1761-03-20)20 March 1761 Gibraltar
Died	25 January 1830(1830-01-25) (aged 68) Savile Row, London
Nationality	British/Irish
Political party	Whig
Alma mater	Peterhouse, Cambridge

George Tierney PC (20 March 1761 – 25 January 1830) was an Irish Whig politician. For much of his career he was in opposition to the governments of William Pitt and Lord Liverpool. From 1818 to 1821 he was Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.

Background and education

Born in Gibraltar, Tierney was the son of Thomas Tierney, a wealthy Irish merchant of London, who was living in Gibraltar as prize agent. He was sent to Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took the degree of Law in 1784. He was called to the bar from Lincoln's Inn in the same year, but abandoned law and plunged into politics. On 10 July 1789 he married Anna Maria Miller of Stapleton in Gloucestershire; she died in 1844.

Political career

In Le Boureau (1798), James Gillray caricatured Tierney as a French executioner.

Early career

Tierney contested Colchester in 1788, when both candidates received the same number of votes, but Tierney was declared elected. He was, however, defeated in the 1790 general election.

He returned to Parliament in 1796 for Southwark and sat for that seat until 1806, and then represented in turn Athlone (1806–1807), Bandon (1807–1812), Appleby (1812–1818), and Knaresborough (1818–1830). During his early years in Parliament he was known for his radical views and was a supporter of Charles James Fox. The French Revolution of 1789 was a polarising force in British Whig politics with some supporting the revolution, and others such as Edmund Burke strongly opposed to it. Because of his radical views, Tierney was often portrayed in caricatures in the costume of a French revolutionary.

Duel

When Charles James Fox seceded from the House of Commons, Tierney emerged as one of the most prominent opponents of William Pitt's foreign policy. In May 1798, Pitt accused him of want of patriotism. A duel ensued at Putney Heath on Sunday, 27 May 1798; but neither combatant was injured.

Office

In 1803, Tierney, partly because peace had been ratified with France at Amiens, and partly because Pitt was out of office, joined the ministry of Henry Addington as Treasurer of the Navy, and was created a Privy Councillor; but this alienated many of his supporters among the middle classes, and offended most of the influential Whigs. On the death of Fox in 1806 he joined William Grenville's Ministry of All the Talents as President of the Board of Control, with a seat in the cabinet, and thus brought himself once more into line with the Whigs. He left office the following year when Grenville's government fell and was replaced by the Tories, who were to dominate office for the next generation. Tierney was in opposition for the following twenty years.

Opposition

About a year after the death of George Ponsonby in 1817, Tierney reluctantly became the recognised leader of the opposition in the House of Commons. At first he was successful, with Whig gains being made at the 1818 general election. On 18 May 1819, Tierney moved a motion in the House of Commons for a committee on the state of the nation. This motion was defeated by 357 to 178, which was a division involving the largest number of MPs until the debates over the Reform bill in the early 1830s. Foord comments that "this defeat put an effective end to Tierney's leadership... Tierney did not disclaim the leadership until 23 Jan. 1821 ..., but he had ceased to exercise its functions since the great defeat".

Final years

Late in his career Tierney joined the government of Tory George Canning.

In George Canning's ministry, he was Master of the Mint, and when Lord Goderich succeeded to the lead Tierney was admitted to the cabinet; but he was already suffering from ill-health and died suddenly at Savile Row, London.

References

Attribution:

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tierney, George". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 964.
• Hamilton, John Andrew (1898). "Tierney, George" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 56. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 385-386.

Sources

• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland 1801–1922, edited by B. M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978).
• His Majesty's Opposition 1714–1830, by Archibald S. Foord (Oxford University Press 1964)

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by George Tierney
• "Archival material relating to George Tierney". UK National Archives.