Heir apparent to substantial estates in Cumberland and Northumberland, Lord Morpeth had been elected to the Convention while still under age. Having been re-elected unopposed in 1690, he was listed in March as a Whig by Lord Carmarthen (Sir Thomas Osborne†), but made little impression in proceedings. In August 1690 the Cabinet granted him leave to travel and he did not return from the Continent until January 1691, though a list among the papers of Robert Harley* and dating from April that year classed him as a Country supporter. He succeeded his father in April 1692. As 3rd Earl of Carlisle he enjoyed considerable political influence in Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland, holding the lord lieutenancy of the first two counties and the governorship of Carlisle uninterrupted from 1693 until his death, and in parliamentary elections he exercised his interest in these counties almost exclusively in favour of Whig candidates. He also proved himself a consistent Whig in the Lords (though in 1696 he opposed the attainder of his uncle Sir John Fenwick†), rising to high political office at the end of the reign of William III and accumulating numerous offices following the Hanoverian succession. Macky described him as a ‘gentleman of great interest in the country’ who ‘hath a fine estate and a very good understanding, with a grave deportment’, and his well-developed sense of his own standing was given expression in the building of a handsome new family seat, Castle Howard. It was in the mausoleum there that Carlisle was buried following his death on 1 May 1738.
biography text
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Parlimentarian
Parliamentarian
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