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Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh GCB PC (27 October 18
18 ? 12 January 1887), British statesman, was born in London on 27 Oct
ober 1818. His ancestors had long been settled in Devon, tracing thei
descent from Galfridas de Nordcote who settled there in 1103. Afte
Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, he became in 1843 Private Secretar
y to William Ewart Gladstone at the Board of Trade. He was afterward
s Legal Secretary to the Board; and after acting as one of the secreta
ies to the Great Exhibition of 1851, co-operated with Sir Charles Tre
velyan in framing the report which revolutionized the conditions of ap
pointment to the Civil Service. He succeeded his grandfather, Sir Staf
ford Henry Northcote, as 8th Baronet in 1851. He entered Parliament i
1855 as Conservative Member of Parliament for Dudley, and was electe
d for Stamford in 1858, a seat which he exchanged in 1866 for North De
von. Steadily supporting his party, he became President of the Boar
d of Trade in 1866, Secretary of State for India in 1867, and Chancell
or of the Exchequer in 1874. In the interval between these last two ap
pointments he was the president of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1870, w
hen they gave the Northwest Territories to Canada, and one of the comm
issioners for the settlement of the Alabama difficulty at the Treaty o
f Washington with the United States in 1871. On Disraeli's elevatio
to the House of Lords as Earl of Beaconsfield in 1876 he became lead
er of the Conservative party in the Commons. As a finance minister h
e was largely dominated by the lines of policy laid down by Gladstone
; but he distinguished himself by his dealings with the Debt, especial
ly his introduction of the New Sinking fund in 1876, by which he fixe
d the annual charge for the Debt in such a way as to provide for a reg
ular series of payments off the capital. His temper as leader was, how
ever, too gentle to satisfy the more ardent spirits among his own foll
owers, and party cabals (in which Lord Randolph Churchill, who had mad
e a dead set at the "old gang," took a leading part) led to Sir Staffo
d's elevation to the Lords in 1885, when Lord Salisbury became prim
e minister. Taking the titles of Earl of Iddesleigh and Viscount St Cy
es, he was included in the cabinet as First Lord of the Treasury. I
Lord Salisbury's 1886 ministry he became Foreign Secretary, but th
e arrangement was not a comfortable one, and his resignation had jus
t been decided upon when on 12 January 1887 he died very suddenly at L
ord Salisbury's official residence in Downing Street. Lord Iddesleig
h was elected Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh in 1883, in w
hich capacity he addressed the students on the subject of "Desultory R
eading". He was not a prolific or notable writer, but amongst his work
s were Twenty Years of Financial Policy (1862), a valuable study of Gl
adstonian finance, and Lectures and Essays (1887). His Life by Andre
w Lang appeared in 1890. Lord Iddesleigh married in 1843 Cecilia Franc
es Farrer (d. 1910) (sister of Thomas, 1st Lord Farrer), by whom he ha
d seven sons and three daughters. His second son, Henry, 1st Baron Nor
thcote, was Governor-General of Australia 1904?1908. (Source: Wikiped
ia: h t tp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stafford_Northcote,_1st_Earl_of_Idd
esleigh)
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