MACARTNEY, Sir George (1737-1806), of Lissanoure Castle, co. Antrim.

As a young man in his early twenties, Macartney formed an intimate connexion with the Fox family, having, according to Horace Walpole, travelled the continent ‘as some sort of governor’ to Stephen Fox.Mems. Geo. III, iii. 174. ‘You can’t imagine what a racket the Holland House people make with this new Mr. Macartney. He rivals Lord Shelburne,’ wrote Lady Kildare to her husband on 22 Aug. 1761.Leinster Corresp. i. 105. Walpole, who found Macartney ‘extremely good-humoured, equal, conversable on all subjects, unaffected, and perfectly agreeable in great or small companies’,To Lady Upper Ossory, 4 Dec. 1775. and conceded his ‘various knowledge and singular memory’, nevertheless thought he had ‘no extraordinary talents’.Mems. Geo. III, loc. cit. Macartney ‘has much art and no capacity’ was the opinion of his friend Charles O’Hara, who shrewdly summed up Macartney’s ambition while chief secretary in Ireland: ‘’Tis really the plan to commit him in advice as seldom as possible, to obey orders, and to get for himself and his old friends the best things he can.’O’Hara to Burke, 4, 22 Nov. 1769.

In 1764 Macartney attempted to enter Parliament. Lord Holland, endeavouring to secure a vacancy for him at Midhurst, wrote to Grenville on 26 Mar.: ‘Mr. Macartney ... will be a constant attender and a zealous and steady supporter of his Majesty’s measures under your conduct. This, I, who hardly ever answered for anybody but myself, will, and do, answer for.’Grenville mss (JM). When this arrangement proved impossible, Holland obtained for Macartney the appointment as envoy to Russia. After eighteen months abroad, Macartney wrote to Holland in June 1766:Ilchester, Letters to Hen. Fox, 263.

A seat in Parliament has long been the great object of my ambition. I am, however, by no means dissatisfied at my situation; on the contrary I like the profession extremely ... But at this court it is impossible ever to go higher ... Had I a seat in Parliament, might I not with more reason pretend to something better in this course of life ... May I venture to ask your Lordship whether ... you could secure for me a seat in the next Parliament for the sum of £2,000.

After Macartney returned to England the following June, Holland seems almost immediately to have begun to negotiate a seat for him. In August he was mentioned as a prospective candidate at Stockbridge,Leinster Corresp. i. 515. but by November appears to have been accepted as the Jolliffe candidate at Petersfield. On 20 Nov., however, he wrote to John Jolliffe that he had just kissed hands as ambassador to Russia ‘which employment, if I set out very soon, will render almost unnecessary for me to come into Parliament this session’.Jolliffe mss. But in the end he did not take up the appointment, and instead was returned for Cockermouth on the interest of his wife’s brother-in-law, Sir James Lowther. In Parliament he naturally supported Administration. Walpole reported that on the petition against Sir James Lowther in November 1768, Macartney ‘spoke for the first time, and with very bad success, though his parts had been much cried up’.Mems. Geo. III, iii. 174. Following his appointment as chief secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, Macarmey resigned his seat in the British House of Commons. He was now bent on obtaining an Irish peerage, but in December 1769 his request, forwarded by the lord lieutenant, was rejected by the King. In October 1772, having lost his post in Ireland on Townshend’s recall, he was given a pension of £1,500 on the Irish establishment.Cal. Home Office Pprs. 1766-9, p. 548; 1770-2, p. 637. He seems, nevertheless, to have felt neglected, and on 21 Jan. 1773 wrote to John Hely Hutchinson:HMC 12th Rep. IX. 274.

Sure I am that no secretary ever served Government with greater fidelity and trust than I did, and no secretary ever received so little thanks for it. I have seen his Lordship [North] but twice since my arrival here. He is without doubt a very able minister ... but he appears to me totally void of feeling, and rather to underrate than justly value political services, which is a very discouraging thing to those who do them.

He was now anxious to re-enter Parliament, and on 25 June North wrote to the King:Fortescue, iii. 113.

Sir George Macartney has often solicited Lord North to render his Irish pension tenable with a seat in the British House of Commons. Of all methods proposed by Sir George, the least objectionable is to let him continue to hold his pension as the salary of an Irish place during pleasure ... Lord Bute has promised Sir George to bring him into Parliament at the next election for a district of boroughs in Scotland which makes him very impatient for some arrangement.

Macartney’s appointment as constable of Toome Castle, County Wexford, was confirmed shortly before his election for Ayr Burghs. During this Parliament no vote by Macartney is recorded before he vacated his seat on his appointment as governor of Grenada, but on 23 Jan. 1775 he spoke against the petition from London merchants trading with North America for the restoration of commerce with the colonies, and one other minor intervention by him on Irish trade is reported.Almon, i. 109, 422. Macartney arrived in the West Indies in May 1776, remaining there till the capture of Grenada by the French in 1779, when he was sent to France as a prisoner, but was exchanged soon afterwards. In 1780 he was returned for Bere Alston on the interest of the Duke of Northumberland, but vacated his seat on being appointed governor of Madras.

He died 31 Mar. 1806.