George Lyttleton

Sir George Lyttleton - Dialogues Of The Dead

Sir George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton PC was born on January 17th, 1709, the son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet, and his wife Christian, daughter of Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet. George was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. In the 1730's he was a great friend and supporter to the extraordinary poet, Alexander Pope. In 1735 he was elected to be the Member of Parliament for Okehampton, a seat that he served until 1756. Interestingly in 1741 he was also elected for Old Sarum, but chose to continue to sit for Okehampton. In politics he was a Whig, in opposition, and therefore opposed to Robert Walpole. He served as secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales, from 1737, and as a Commissioner of the Treasury in 1744. With the fall of Walpole Lyttelton became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1755. The following year he was raised to the peerage as Lord Lyttelton, Baron of Frankley in the County of Worcester. In these years he also supported and was friends with the author Henry Fielding, who dedicated his great novel 'Tom Jones' to him and to the poet James Thomson who addressed him throughout his poem 'The Seasons'. Lyttelton thereafter arranged a pension for Thomson. In 1760 he wrote Dialogues of the Dead with Elizabeth Montagu, leader of the bluestockings. It is the work for which his name is remembered to this day. He also wrote 'The History of the Life of Henry the Second (1767-1771). 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. George Lyttelton died on August 24th, 1773, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral.