North

North, an illustrious English family, founded by Sir Edward North (1496-1564), an eminent lawyer, who was created Baron North of Kirtling by Queen Mary. His second son, Sir Thomas North (1579), is remembered as the translator of Plutarch. Dudley North, 4th baron, wrote a life of his ancestor, the first lord. Four of his sons were eminent men in their day, and their memory has been preserved in the garrulous and laudatory, but fascinating Lives written by Roger, the youngest of the number. The eldest, Francis (1637-85), was successively Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, and Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and in 1672 became Lord-Keeper with the title, of Baron Guildford. Sir Dudley North (1641-91) engaged in commerce and made a fortune in the Levant, passing many years at Smyrna and Constantinople. After his return to England he was appointed a Commissioner of Customs. He had a wide knowledge of architecture, and possessed great mechanical skill. John (1645-83) succeeded Barrow as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1677. Roger (1653-1733) practised as a lawyer in London, but after the Revolution withdrew to his seat of Rougham in Norfolk. Besides the Lives of his brothers and his unfinished Autobiography, he wrote an Examen of Kennet's History, abounding in minute details, on which Macaulay drew largely. Frederick North, 8th Baron North and 2nd Earl of Guildford (1723-92), entered Parliament in 1754. In 1767 he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer and became leader of the House of Commons. As Prime Minister from 1770 to 1782 he must be held responsible for the loss of the American colonies, though he often acted in opposition to his better judgment, owing to his anxiety to please the king. After the Rockingham and Shelburne Ministries had run their course, he returned to power as one of the Secretaries of State under Lord Portland, the other being Charles James Fox; but the union of these old enemies excited universal distrust, and the Coalition Ministry was dismissed in December, 1783. Lord North succeeded his father as Earl of Guildford in 1790.