Charles Philip Yorke

The Right Honourable
Charles Philip Yorke
FSA FRS
Portrait by George Romney
Home Secretary
In office
17 August 1803 – 12 May 1804
MonarchGeorge III
Prime MinisterHenry Addington
Preceded byLord Pelham
Succeeded byThe Lord Hawkesbury
Member of Parliament
for Cambridgeshire
In office
1790–1810
Preceded byPhilip Yorke
Succeeded byLord Francis Osborne
Personal details
Born(1764-03-12)12 March 1764
Died13 March 1834(1834-03-13) (aged 70)
NationalityBritish
Political partyTory
SpouseHarriott Manningham

Charles Philip Yorke PC FRS FSA (12 March 1764 – 13 March 1834) was a British politician. He notably served as Home Secretary from 1803 to 1804.

Political career

He sat as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridgeshire from 1790 to 1810. He was commissioned as an officer in the Cambridgeshire Militia in 1793.[1] He was promoted to major in 1795, a fellow officer was Captain George Manby[2] By 1806 he was their colonel.[3] He was MP for Liskeard from 1812 to 1818.

In 1801 he was appointed Secretary at War in Henry Addington's ministry, transferring to the Home Office in 1803, where he was a strong opponent of concession to the Roman Catholics. He made himself exceedingly unpopular in 1810 by bringing about the exclusion of strangers, including reporters for the press, from the House of Commons under the standing order, which led to the imprisonment of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet in the Tower and to riots in London. In the same year, Yorke joined Spencer Perceval's government as First Lord of the Admiralty. He retired from public life in 1818.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1801.

Family

Yorke was the second son of the Hon. Charles Yorke and grandson of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke. His mother was Agneta, daughter of Henry Johnstone. His brother was Admiral Sir Joseph Sidney Yorke (1768–1831), whose son succeeded to the earldom of Hardwicke.

Yorke married Harriott, eldest daughter of Charles Manningham, Esq. of Thorpe, Surrey in July 1790.[4] They had no children. He died in March 1834, one day after his 70th birthday.

He had a natural son, Charles Eurwicke Douglas.[5]

Legacy

In 1802, Matthew Flinders named Yorke Peninsula in South Australia after Yorke.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Cambridge". Stamford Mercury. 4 January 1793. p. 3.
  2. ^ "Cambridgeshire Militia". Northampton Mercury. 7 February 1795. p. 3.
  3. ^ "HomeGuard" (PDF). www.napoleon-series. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  4. ^ "Married". Stamford Mercury. 9 July 1790.
  5. ^ Walford, E. (1860). The county families of the United Kingdom. Рипол Классик. p. 186. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  6. ^ Flinders, Matthew (1966) [1814]. A Voyage to Terra Australis : undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803 in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner; with an account of the shipwreck of the Porpoise, arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and imprisonment of the commander during six years and a half in that island (Facsimile ed.). Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia. p. 257. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire
1790–1800
With: James Whorwood Adeane 		Succeeded by
(Parliament of Great Britain abolished)
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
(self in Parliament of Great Britain)
 Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire
1801–1810
With: James Whorwood Adeane, to 1802
Sir Henry Peyton, Bt 1802
Lord Charles Manners 1802–1810 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for St Germans
1810–1812
With: Matthew Montagu 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Liskeard
1812–1818
With: William Eliot 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Home Secretary
1803–1804 		Succeeded by
Preceded by First Lord of the Admiralty
1810–1812 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Teller of the Exchequer
1813–1834 		Succeeded by
Charles William Manningham