Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney PC (24 February 1732 – 30 June 1800), was a British politician who held several important Cabinet posts in the second half of the 18th century. His most enduring legacy is probably that the cities of Sydney in Nova Scotia, Canada, and Sydney in New South Wales, Australia and are named in his honour, in 1785 and 1788 respectively.
Townshend was born at Frognal House, in Sidcup, Kent, the son of the Hon. Thomas...
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Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney PC (24 February 1732 – 30 June 1800), was a British politician who held several important Cabinet posts in the second half of the 18th century. His most enduring legacy is probably that the cities of Sydney in Nova Scotia, Canada, and Sydney in New South Wales, Australia and are named in his honour, in 1785 and 1788 respectively.
Townshend was born at Frognal House, in Sidcup, Kent, the son of the Hon. Thomas Townshend, second son of Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend. His mother was Albinia, daughter of John Selwyn. He was educated at Clare College, Cambridge.
Townshend was elected to the House of Commons in 1754 as Whig member for Whitchurch and held that seat till his elevation to the peerage in 1783. He initially aligned himself with his great uncle the Duke of Newcastle but later joined William Pitt the Elder in opposition to George Grenville. Townshend was a Lord of the Treasury in the first Rockingham ministry and continued in that...
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