Under-sec. of state for foreign affairs Jan. 1796 – Mar. 1799; recvr.-gen. alienation office 1797 – d.; commr. bd. of control Mar. 1799 – Mar. 1801; jt. paymaster-gen. July 1800 – Mar. 1801; PC 28 May 1800; treas. of navy May 1804 – Jan. 1806; sec. of state for foreign affairs Mar. 1807 – Sept. 1809, Sept. 1822 – Apr. 1827; amb. extraordinary to Portugal 1814 – 15; pres. bd. of control June 1816 – Jan. 1821; first ld. of treasury and chan. of exch. 20 Apr. – 8 Aug. 1827; bencher, L. Inn 1827.
Unless otherwise stated, the Canning pprs. (W. Yorks. AS, Leeds, Harewood mss WYL250/8) have been used throughout. Some of these were published by Canning’s private sec. A. G. Stapleton in his Political Life of Canning (2nd edn. 1831) and Canning and his Times (1859), while his son E. J. Stapleton edited Some Official Corresp. of Canning (1887). R. Therry’s edition of Canning’s Speeches (3rd edn. 1836) has been followed. For his personal connections, see A. Aspinall, ‘Canningite Party’, TRHS (ser. 4), xvii (1934), 177-226, and ‘Last of the Canningites’, EHR, l (1935), 639-69. Of the many biographies, Wendy Hinde’s (1973) is usually reliable; the most recent study is S.M. Lee, Canning and the Tories, 1801-1827 (2008).
CANNING, George (1770-1827)