He became private secretary to the Duke of Newcastle in 1732, and was for many years on the most intimate and confidential terms both with the Duke and with his brother Henry Pelham.[1] He was appointed Under-secretary of State in 1734, joint secretary to the Lords Justices in 1744, and was a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations from 1749 to 1761. He was also Secretary of Barbados from 1742, and registrar of Chancery in Jamaica from 1753, both of which offices he held until his death.
Despite being accused on Jacobite sympathies, Stone also gained a position of great personal influence with George II by whom he was made tutor and later secretary to Prince George, afterwards George III. On the accession of the latter to the throne, he was appointed treasurer to Queen Charlotte, and attaching himself to Lord Bute he became an influential member of the party known as The King's Friends, whose meetings were frequently held at his house. He promoted the preferment of his brother George, who went to Ireland as chaplain to the Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset.[1]
He died in 1773 at his home in Privy Garden, Whitehall, London and was buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey. [2] He had married in 1743, Hannah, the daughter of Stephen Mauvillion of Tooting, and had a son, Thomas, who predeceased him. Both Thomas and his mother were also buried in the nave of the Abbey.
