George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton

Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue Entry

Sitter in 7 portraits
George Lyttelton entered Parliament as an MP in 1735. He was a member of a group of young Whigs known as Cobham's Cubs, and was an outspoken opponent of Robert Walpole. He contributed to one of the most important opposition journals, Common Sense, or, The Englishman's Journal, which started in 1737. After Walpole's fall, Lyttelton briefly became Chancellor of the Exchequer. On the death of his father in 1751, Lyttelton succeeded to the baronetcy and took over the running of Hagley Hall in Worcestershire, playing a less active part in politics. He wrote Dialogues of the Dead (1760) with Elizabeth Montagu, leader of the bluestockings, and The History of the Life of Henry the Second(1767).