- George Rose
George Rose (
17 June 1744 –13 January 1818 ) was a Britishpolitician .Born in
Brechin ,Scotland , Rose was the son of the Reverend David Rose of Lethnet, by Margaret, daughter of Donald Rose of Wester Clune. He was educated atWestminster School , afterwards entering theRoyal Navy , a service which he left in 1762 after he had taken part in some fighting in theWest Indies . He then obtained a position in theCivil Service , becoming jointKeeper of the Records in 1772 and secretary to theBoard of Taxes in 1777. In 1782 he gave up the latter appointment to become one of the secretaries to the treasury underLord Shelburne , though he did not enter Parliament.He left office with his colleagues in April 1783, but in the following December he returned to his former position at the treasury in Pitt's ministry, being henceforward one of this minister’s most steadfast supporters. He entered parliament as Member for Launceston early in 1784, and his fidelity and friendship were rewarded by Pitt, who gave him a lucrative post in the
court of exchequer ; in 1788 he becameClerk of the Parliaments . In 1801 Rose left office with Pitt, but returned with him to power in 1804, when he was made vice-president of the committee on trade and jointPaymaster-General .He resigned these offices a few days after Pitt's death in 1806, but he served as vice-president of the committee on trade and
Treasurer of the Navy under the Duke of Portland andSpencer Perceval from 1807 to 1812. He was again Treasurer of the Navy underLord Liverpool , and he was still MP for Christchurch, a seat which he had held since 1790, when he died atCuffnells , inHampshire .Rose was an able and conscientious public servant, although he and his two sons drew a large amount of money from
sinecure s, a fact referred to byWilliam Cobbett in his "A New Year’s Gift to old George Rose." Rose wrote several books on economic subjects, and his "Diaries and Correspondence", edited by the Rev.L. V. Harcourt , was published in 1860.His elder son, Sir
George Henry Rose (1771–1855), was in parliament from 1794 to 1813, and again from 1818 to 1844, and in the meantime he was British minister at Munich, at Berlin, and at Washington; in 1818 he succeeded his father as clerk of the parliaments. He was the father ofBaron Strathnairn . The second son was the poetWilliam Stewart Rose .References
*1911
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.