| Honorific-Prefix: | His Grace |
| The Duke of Portland | |
| Office: | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
| Term Start: | 31 March 1807 |
| Term End: | 4 October 1809 |
| Predecessor: | The Lord Grenville |
| Successor: | Spencer Perceval |
| Office2: | Prime Minister of Great Britain |
| Term Start2: | 2 April 1783 |
| Term End2: | 18 December 1783 |
| Monarch2: | George III |
| Predecessor2: | The Earl of Shelburne |
| Successor2: | William Pitt the Younger |
| Office3: | Lord President of the Council |
| Term Start3: | 30 July 1801 |
| Term End3: | 14 January 1805 |
| Primeminister3: | Henry Addington William Pitt the Younger |
| Predecessor3: | The Earl of Chatham |
| Successor3: | The Viscount Sidmouth |
| Office4: | Home Secretary |
| Term Start4: | 11 July 1794 |
| Term End4: | 30 July 1801 |
| Primeminister4: | William Pitt the Younger |
| Predecessor4: | Henry Dundas |
| Successor4: | Lord Pelham |
| Office5: | Leader of the House of Lords |
| Term Start5: | 2 April 1783 |
| Term End5: | 18 December 1783 |
| Primeminister5: | Himself |
| Predecessor5: | The Earl of Shelburne |
| Successor5: | The Earl Temple |
| Office6: | Lord Lieutenant of Ireland |
| Term Start6: | 8 April 1782 |
| Term End6: | 15 August 1782 |
| Primeminister6: | The Earl of Shelburne |
| Predecessor6: | The Earl of Carlisle |
| Successor6: | The Earl Temple |
| Office7: | Lord Chamberlain of the Household |
| Term Start7: | 1765 |
| Term End7: | 1766 |
| Monarch7: | George III |
| Predecessor7: | The Earl Gower |
| Successor7: | The Earl of Hertford |
| Alma Mater: | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Birth Date: | 14 April 1738 |
| Birth Place: | Bulstrode Park, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Death Place: | Westminster, England |
| Resting Place: | St Marylebone Parish Church |
| Children: | 6, including |
| Signature: | William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland Signature.svg |
| Signature Alt: | Cursive signature in ink |
William Henry Cavendish Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, (14 April 173830 October 1809) was a British Whig and then a Tory politician during the late Georgian era. He served as chancellor of the University of Oxford (1792–1809) and as Prime Minister of Great Britain (1783) and then of the United Kingdom (1807–1809). The gap of 26 years between his two terms as prime minister is the longest of any British prime minister. He was also an ancestor of King Charles III through his great-granddaughter Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne.
Portland was known before 1762 by the courtesy title Marquess of Titchfield. He held a title for every degree of British nobility: duke, marquess, earl (Earl of Portland), viscount (Viscount Woodstock), and baron (Baron Cirencester). He was the leader of the Portland Whigs faction, which broke with the Whig leadership of Charles James Fox and joined with William Pitt the Younger in the wake of the French Revolution.
William Henry, Lord Titchfield, was born on 14 April 1738 at Bulstrode Park in Buckinghamshire.[1] He was the eldest son of William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland and "the richest woman in great Britain" Lady Margaret Cavendish-Harley and inherited many lands from his mother and his maternal grandmother,[2] [3] [4] who was the daughter of John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle.[5] He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated MA in 1757.[6]
In December 1757, the nineteen-year-old Lord Titchfield was sent to study under Lord Stormont for a year in Warsaw, he was accompanied by Stormont's secretary Benjamin Langlois. Stormont was to superintend all expenditures on his equipage, while Benjamin Langlois was to hire local masters and direct the studies of teenage Titchfield. The books he directed to read were ancient history, modern history, general law.[7]
In 1759, he travelled with Benjamin Langlois through Germany to Italy, spent a year in Turin, and went on to Florence. When Stormont was appointed ambassador to Vienna in 1763, Langlois went with him as Secretary of the embassy.[8]
On 8 November 1766, Portland married Lady Dorothy Cavendish, only daughter of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire and Lady Charlotte Boyle. They were parents of six children:
Portland was elected to sit in the Parliament of Great Britain for Weobley in 1761 before he entered the House of Lords after he succeeded his father as Duke of Portland the next year. He was associated with the aristocratic Whig Party of Lord Rockingham and served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household in Rockingham's first government (1765–1766).[5]
Portland served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in Rockingham's second ministry (April–August 1782). He faced strong demands for conciliatory measures following years of coercion and taxation brought about by the British government's engagement in the American Revolutionary War.[14] Portland resolved to make concessions and, overcoming the resistance of Lord Shelburne, the Home Secretary to whom he reported, convinced Parliament to repeal the Declaratory Act and to modify Poynings' Law.[15] Following Rockingham's death, Portland resigned from Lord Shelburne's ministry along with other supporters of Charles James Fox.[16]
In April 1783, Portland was selected as the titular head of a coalition government as Prime Minister, whose real leaders were Charles James Fox and Lord North. He served as First Lord of the Treasury in the ministry until its fall in December that same year. During his tenure, the Treaty of Paris was signed, which formally ended the American Revolutionary War. The government was brought down after it had lost a vote in the House of Lords on its proposed reform of the East India Company after George III had let it be known that any peer voting for the measure would be considered his personal enemy.[17]
In 1789, Portland became one of several vice presidents of London's Foundling Hospital. The charity had become one of the most fashionable of the time, with several notables serving on its board. At its creation, 50 years earlier, Portland's father, William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland, had been one of the founding governors, as listed on the charity's royal charter granted by George II. The hospital had a mission to care for the abandoned children in London, and it achieved rapid fame through its poignant mission, its art collection donated from supporting artists and the popular benefit concerts by George Frideric Handel. In 1793, Portland took over the presidency of the charity from Lord North.
Along with many other conservative Whigs such as Edmund Burke, Portland was deeply uncomfortable with the French Revolution; he broke with Fox over that issue and joined Pitt's government as Secretary of State for the Home Department in 1794. In that role he oversaw the administration of patronage and financial inducements, which were often secret, to secure the passage of the Act of Union 1800.[18] He continued to serve in the cabinet until Pitt's death in 1806, from 1801 to 1805 as Lord President of the Council[5] and then as a Minister without Portfolio.
In March 1807, after the collapse of the Ministry of all the Talents, Pitt's supporters returned to power, and Portland was once again an acceptable figurehead for a fractious group of ministers that included George Canning, Lord Castlereagh, Lord Hawkesbury and Spencer Perceval.
Portland's second government saw the United Kingdom's complete isolation on the continent but also the beginning of its recovery with the start of the Peninsular War. In late 1809, with Portland's health poor and the ministry rocked by the scandalous duel between Canning and Castlereagh, Portland resigned and died shortly thereafter.
He was Recorder of Nottingham until his death.
He died on 30 October 1809 at Burlington House, Piccadilly, after an operation for a kidney stone, and was buried at St Marylebone Parish Church, London.[19]
He had lived expensively: with an income of £17,000 a year (worth £577,000 in 2005),[20] he had debts at his death computed at £52,000 (£1.76 million in 2005), which were paid off by his succeeding son by selling off some property, including Bulstrode Park.[21]
Along with Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, Benjamin Disraeli, Marquess of Salisbury, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Bonar Law and Neville Chamberlain, he was the first of eight British prime ministers to die while his direct successor was in office.
The Portland Vase of Roman glass was given its name because it was owned by Portland at his family residence at Bulstrode Park.
Portland Parish, in Jamaica, was named after him. The Titchfield School, founded in 1786, is in the parish and is also named in his honour. The school's crest is derived from his personal crest.
Two major streets in Marylebone are named after him: Portland Place and Great Portland Street. Both were built on land that he once owned.
North Bentinck Arm and South Bentinck Arm were named for the Bentinck family by George Vancouver in 1793, along with other names on the British Columbia Coast, such as Portland Canal and Portland Channel.
Portland Bay in Victoria, Australia was named in 1800 by the British navigator James Grant. The city of Portland is located on the bay.
The department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham holds a number of papers relating to him. His personal and political papers (Pw F) are part of the Portland (Welbeck) Collection, and the Portland (London) Collection (Pl) contains his correspondence and official papers, especially in series Pl C.
The Portland Estate Papers held at Nottinghamshire Archives also contain items relating to the 3rd Duke's properties.
The Portland Collection[22] of fine and decorative art includes pieces owned and commissioned by him, including paintings by George Stubbs.
| Crest: | Out of a ducal coronet proper two arms counter-embowed vested Gules, on the hands gloves Or, each holding an ostrich feather Argent (Bentinck); A snake nowed proper (Cavendish) |
| Notes: | The title Duke of Portland was created by George I in 1716. |
| Coronet: | A Coronet of a Duke |
| Escutcheon: | Quarterly: 1st and 4th, Azure a cross moline Argent (Bentinck); 2nd and 3rd, Sable three stags' heads cabossed Argent attired Or, a crescent for difference (Cavendish) |
| Supporters: | Two lions double queued, the dexter Or and the sinister sable |
| Motto: | Craignez Honte (Fear Dishonour) |