George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton

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George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton (January 17, 1709 – August 24, 1773), known as Sir George Lyttelton, Baronet between 1751 and 1756, was a British politician and statesman and a patron of the arts. He was one of the politicians who opposed Robert Walpole as a member (one of Cobham's Cubs) of the Whig Opposition the 1730s, After Walpole's fall, Lyttelton became Chancellor of the Exchequer (1755). He was a friend and supporter to Alexander Pope in the 1730s and to Henry Fielding in the 1750s. James Thomson addresses him throughout his poem The Seasons, and Lyttelton arranged a pension for Thomson.

He wrote Dialogues of the Dead in 1760 with Elizabeth Montagu, leader of the bluestockings, and The History of the Life of Henry the Second (1767–1771). The former work is part of a tradition of such dialogues. Henry Fielding dedicated Tom Jones to him.

George Lyttelton spent many years and a fortune developing Hagley Hall and its park which contains many follies. The hall itself, which is in north Worcestershire, was designed by Sanderson Miller and is the last of the great Palladian houses to be built in England.

[edit] External links

• Works by George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton at Project Gutenberg

Political offices
Preceded by The Earl of Lincoln	Cofferer of the Household 1754–1756	Succeeded by The Duke of Leeds
Preceded by Henry Bilson Legge	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1755–1756	Succeeded by Henry Bilson Legge
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by (new creation)	Baron Lyttelton 1756–1773	Succeeded by Thomas Lyttelton
Baronetage of England
Preceded by Thomas Lyttelton	Baronet (of Frankley) 1751–1773	Succeeded by Thomas Lyttelton