59 Facts About Spencer Perceval

Spencer Perceval was a British statesman and barrister who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812.

The younger son of an Anglo-Irish earl, Spencer Perceval was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Spencer Perceval studied law at Lincoln's Inn, practised as a barrister on the Midland circuit, and in 1796 became a King's Counsel.

Spencer Perceval entered politics at age 33 as a member of Parliament for Northampton.

Spencer Perceval was opposed to Catholic emancipation and reform of Parliament; he supported the war against Napoleon and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade.

Spencer Perceval was opposed to hunting, gambling and adultery; he did not drink as much as most MPs at the time, gave generously to charity, and enjoyed spending time with his thirteen children.

At the head of a weak government, Spencer Perceval faced a number of crises during his term in office, including an inquiry into the Walcheren expedition, the madness of King George III, economic depression, and Luddite riots.

Spencer Perceval overcame those crises, successfully pursued the Peninsular War in the face of opposition defeatism, and won the support of the Prince Regent.

Spencer Perceval's position was looking stronger by early 1812, when, in the lobby of the House of Commons, he was assassinated by a merchant with a grievance against his government.

Spencer Perceval's mother, Catherine Compton, Baroness Arden, was a granddaughter of the 4th Earl of Northampton.

Spencer Perceval was a Compton family name; Catherine Compton's great uncle Spencer Perceval Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, had been prime minister.

Spencer Perceval went to Harrow School, where he was a disciplined and hard-working pupil.

The sisters' father, Sir Thomas Spencer Perceval Wilson, approved of the match between his eldest daughter Margaretta and Lord Arden, who was wealthy and already a Member of Parliament and a Lord of the Admiralty.

Spencer Perceval, who was at that time an impecunious barrister on the Midland Circuit, was told to wait until the younger daughter, Jane, came of age in three years' time.

When Jane reached 21, in 1790, Spencer Perceval's career was still not prospering, and Sir Thomas still opposed the marriage.

Spencer Perceval acted as junior counsel for the Crown in the prosecutions of Thomas Paine in absentia for seditious libel, and John Horne Tooke for high treason.

Spencer Perceval joined the London and Westminster Light Horse Volunteers in 1794 when the country was under threat of invasion by France and served with them until 1803.

Spencer Perceval wrote anonymous pamphlets in favour of the impeachment of Warren Hastings, and in defence of public order against sedition.

Spencer Perceval could earn more as a barrister and needed the money to support his growing family.

Spencer Perceval was 33 when he became a KC, making him one of the youngest ever.

Spencer Perceval was invited to stand for election in his place.

Spencer Perceval stood for the Castle Ashby interest, Edward Bouverie for the Whigs, and William Walcot for the corporation.

Spencer Perceval represented Northampton until his death 16 years later, and is the only MP for Northampton to have held the office of prime minister.

Spencer Perceval's public speaking skills had been sharpened at the Crown and Rolls debating society when he was a law student.

The fees from his legal practice allowed Spencer Perceval to take out a lease on a country house, Belsize House in Hampstead.

Spencer Perceval used the occasion to mount an attack on Charles Fox and his demands for reform.

Pitt described the speech as one of the best he had ever heard, and later that year Spencer Perceval was appointed to the post of Solicitor to the Ordnance.

Spencer Perceval's career continued to prosper during Henry Addington's administration.

Spencer Perceval was appointed solicitor general in 1801 and attorney general the following year.

Spencer Perceval did not agree with Addington's general policies, and confined himself to speeches on legal issues.

Spencer Perceval was retained in the position of attorney general when Addington resigned, and Pitt formed his second ministry in 1804.

When Pitt died, in January 1806, Spencer Perceval was an emblem bearer at his funeral.

Spencer Perceval resigned as attorney general, refusing to serve in Lord Grenville's ministry of "all the talents", as it included Fox.

The opposition sprang to her defence and Spencer Perceval became her advisor, drafting a 156-page letter to King George III in her support.

Spencer Perceval had a bonfire of The Book at Lindsey House, and large sums of government money were spent on buying back stray copies.

Spencer Perceval would have preferred to remain attorney general or become Home Secretary, and pleaded ignorance of financial affairs.

Spencer Perceval agreed to take the position when the salary was augmented by the Duchy of Lancaster.

Jane Spencer Perceval became ill after the birth and the family moved out of the damp and draughty Belsize House, spending a few months in Lord Teignmouth's house in Clapham before finding a suitable country house in Ealing.

Meanwhile, in town, Spencer Perceval had moved from Lindsey House into 10 Downing Street, when the Duke of Portland moved back to Burlington House shortly after becoming prime minister.

Spencer Perceval was responsible for ensuring that Wilberforce's bill on the abolition of the slave trade, which had still not passed its final stages in the House of Lords when Grenville's ministry fell, would not "fall between the two ministries" and be rejected in a snap division.

Spencer Perceval was one of the founding members of the African Institute, which was set up in April 1807 to safeguard the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act.

Spencer Perceval successfully defended the commander-in-chief of the army, the Duke of York, against charges of corruption when the Duke's ex-mistress Mary Anne Clarke claimed to have sold army commissions with his knowledge.

Negotiations began to find a new prime minister: Canning wanted to be either prime minister or nothing, Spencer Perceval was prepared to serve under a third person, but not Canning.

The remnants of the cabinet decided to invite Lord Grey and Lord Grenville to form "an extended and combined administration" in which Spencer Perceval was hoping for the home secretaryship.

The Prince of Wales, supported by the Opposition, objected to the restrictions, but Spencer Perceval steered the bill through Parliament.

Spencer Perceval fell to the floor, after uttering something that was variously heard as "murder" and "oh my God".

Spencer Perceval left a widow and twelve children aged between three and twenty, and there were soon rumours that he had not left them well provided for.

Jane Spencer Perceval married Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Carr, brother of the Reverend Robert James Carr, then Vicar of Brighton, in 1815 and was widowed again six years later.

Spencer Perceval was buried on 16 May 1812 in the Egmont vault at St Luke's Church, Charlton, London.

Spencer Perceval was a small, slight, and very pale man, who usually dressed in black.

Spencer Perceval never sat for a full-sized portrait; likenesses are either miniatures or are based on a death mask by Joseph Nollekens.

Spencer Perceval was the last British prime minister to wear a powdered wig tied in a queue, and knee-breeches according to the old-fashioned style of the 18th century.

Spencer Perceval is sometimes referred to as one of Britain's forgotten prime ministers, remembered only for the manner of his death.

Spencer Perceval was mourned by many; Lord Chief Justice Sir James Mansfield wept during his summing up to the jury at Bellingham's trial.

Public monuments to Spencer Perceval were erected in Northampton, Lincoln's Inn and in Westminster Abbey.

Spencer Perceval's assassination inspired poems such as Universal sympathy on the martyr'd statesman :.

One of Spencer Perceval's most noted critics, especially on the question of Catholic emancipation, was the cleric Sydney Smith.

American historian Henry Adams suggested that it was this picture of Spencer Perceval that stayed in the minds of Liberals for a whole generation.

Spencer and Jane Perceval had thirteen children, of whom twelve survived to adulthood.