PAGET, Hon. Berkeley Thomas (1780-1842), of 15 Portman Street, Mdx.

Paget was the extravagant and immoral youngest son of a peer, whose financial problems were not solved by his marriage to a woman with a reputed fortune of ‘at least £30,000’, his appointment in 1810 to a junior ministerial post worth £1,600 a year, and an undisclosed ‘portion’ from his father’s estate received before the latter’s death in March 1812. Williams Wynn Corresp. 75; PROB 11/1533/253. He had lamented to his brother Arthur in January 1812 that his greatest wish was to ‘establish myself in the country free from Parliament and place’, but that his salary was ‘of the greatest consequence’. Paget Brothers ed. Lord Hylton, 234-6. Tied by necessity to a political career, he sat in three Parliaments for Anglesey on the family interest and was likewise returned for Milborne Port at the general election of 1820.

As ‘one of the treasury phalanx’, he of course supported Lord Liverpool’s ministry when present, but he is not known to have spoken in debate. Black Bk. (1823), 181; Session of Parl. 1825, p. 479. He was absent from the division on Catholic relief, 28 Feb. 1821, but was reportedly averse to it at this time. HLRO, Hist. Coll. 379, Grey Bennet diary, 44. He divided against relief, 1 Mar., 21 Apr., 10 May 1825. His real purpose in politics was to obtain a more secure and remunerative berth, and on several occasions his name was mentioned in connection with possible vacancies. According to the Grenvillite Charles Williams Wynn*, he accepted the offer of a place at the audit board in January 1822 but was obliged to forego it as his brother Lord Anglesey feared the loss of the Milborne Port seat at a by-election. Buckingham, Mems. Geo. IV, i. 275, 280. In March 1824 Anglesey wrote directly to the king to press Paget’s claim to the governorship of Madras, which would ‘make his fortune’, but the rumoured vacancy did not materialize. Geo. IV Letters, iii. 1154. The following month Canning’s calculations included moving him to the excise board, as he was known to want ‘a more lucrative office and one if possible for life!’ Harewood mss, Canning to wife, 4, 6 Apr. 1824. Nothing came of this, and in the autumn of 1825 Anglesey was considering bringing him forward at the next general election either for Caernarvon boroughs or Anglesey. UCNW, Plas Newydd mss ser. I, Anglesey to Sanderson, 18 Sept., Sanderson to Paget, 18 Oct. 1825. In the event, he retired at the dissolution in 1826 and shortly afterwards procured a place at the excise board, which was reportedly worth only £1,200 per annum in 1832. Extraordinary Black Bk. (1832), 558. He died at Hampton Court Palace, where he had been residing, in October 1842, and left all his property to his wife. Gent. Mag. (1842), ii. 674; PROB 8/235; 11/1971/767.