John Villiers, 3rd Earl of Clarendon

Biography

Villiers was born on 14 December 1757, the second son of Lady Charlotte, daughter of William Capel, 3rd Earl of Essex, and Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon. He was educated at Eton and St John's College, Cambridge and graduated with an MA in 1776 and an LL.D on 30 April 1833. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn on 22 June 1779.

In January 1784 Lord Camelford (probably at Pitt the Elder's request) brought Villiers into Parliament at a by-election for Old Sarum, and he represented that rotten borough until 1790, and then sat for Dartmouth 1790–1802, and for the Tain Burghs from 1802 until 27 May 1805, when he accepted the Chiltern Hundreds (in order to resign his Parliamentary seat). He was afterwards member for Queenborough 1807–1812 and 1820–1824. Villiers did not make his mark in Parliament as a debater, and was styled "a mere courtier, famous for telling interminable long stories".

The Rolliad notices him as "Villiers, comely with the flaxen hair", and likens him to the Nereus of Homer. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall also styles him the "Nereus" of Pitt's forces, and mentions him as a staunch supporter of that minister, to whose friendship entirely he owed his appointment for life in February 1790 to the lucrative sinecure of warden and chief justice in eyre of all the royal forests, chaces, parks, and warrens north of Trent.

On 6 February 1782 Villiers was made joint King's Counsel in the Duchy Court of Lancaster by his father, who then was Chancellor of the Duchy. From 29 July 1786 until his succession to the peerage he was Surveyor of Woods south of the Trent of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was added to the Privy Council and made Comptroller of the King's Household on 19 February 1787. This position at court he filled for three years, and on 24 February 1790 he was made a Commissioner of the Board of Trade. He was Recorder and Under-Steward of New Windsor from 1789 to 1806.