Henry Pelham was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 until his death in 1754.
16 Facts About Henry Pelham
2.
Henry Pelham was the younger brother of Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who served in Pelham's government and succeeded him as prime minister.
3.
Henry Pelham's premiership was relatively uneventful in terms of domestic affairs, although it was during his premiership that Great Britain experienced the tumult of the 1745 Jacobite uprising.
4.
Henry Pelham made himself conspicuous by his support of Walpole on the question of the excise.
5.
In 1742 a union of parties resulted in the formation of an administration in which Henry Pelham became Prime Minister the following year, succeeding the Earl of Wilmington after his death.
6.
The first year of Henry Pelham's premiership is regarded as a continuation of the Carteret ministry, with Lord Carteret continuing as Secretary of State for the Northern Department with responsibility for foreign affairs; Carteret was close to King George II.
7.
Henry Pelham served as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons.
8.
Thereafter Henry Pelham shared power with his brother, the Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne.
9.
Henry Pelham was regarded as the leading figure, but rank and influence made his brother very powerful in the Cabinet.
10.
Henry Pelham assisted a fund to reduce the National Debt.
11.
Henry Pelham's financial policy was a major success once peace had been signed in 1748 to end the War of the Austrian Succession.
12.
When Henry Pelham was elevated to Prime Minister, he began construction of a house located at 22 Arlington Street in St James's, a district of the City of Westminster in central London.
13.
Henry Pelham hired the architect William Kent to build the structure in two phases.
14.
Henry Pelham was buried in All Saints' Church, Laughton, East Sussex.
15.
Henry Pelham was the first British Prime Minister who never acceded to the peerage in his lifetime.
16.
Henry Pelham was played by Roger Allam in the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.