Item talk:Q387568
Education: Eton College , Christ Church, Oxford, matriculated 1726; did not take a degree
Coteries: Cobham's Cubs/the Boy Patriots: Lyttelton, Thomas Pitt, William Pitt, and Richard Grenville and George Grenville (‘the cousinhood’), as well as Viscount Cornbury and William Murray, Frederick, prince of Wales, Edward Moore , Gilbert West, alexander pope, James Thomson, Henry Fielding, Richard Glover, David Mallet, James Hammond, William Shenstone, Edward Moore, Voltaire, Elizabeth Montagu
Periodicals etc.: recommendation of Glover's patriot epic Leonidas published in the opposition journal Common Sense, contributed to one of the most important opposition journals, Common Sense, or, The Englishman's Journal, started in February 1737
Career: politician--opposition MP, writer, returned for the Pitt family borough, Okehampton in Devon, in the by-election 1735, appointed Frederick Prince of Wales's equerry 1735, appointed Frederick Prince of Wales's secretary 1737, Lyttelton unsuccessfully challenged his tory rival Edmund Lechmere for a seat in the general election of 1741, appointed a lord of the Treasury in the new broad-bottom administration in December 1744 and was subsequently dismissed from Frederick's household, succeeded to the baronetcy upon the death of his father in 1751 and took over the running of Hagley Hall, On Henry Pelham's death in March 1754 Lyttelton resigned his seat on the Treasury board, accepted the post of cofferer in the duke of Newcastle's administration 1754, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the room of Legge 1755, When Newcastle resigned in November 1756 in the face of popular opposition, Lyttelton retired from office, created Baron Lyttelton of Frankley 1756, married Lucy Fortescue (1717/18–1747) 1742-47 (early death), married Elizabeth (1716–1795), the daughter of Sir Robert Rich, fourth baronet (1685–1768) 1749; unhappy marriage, they separated 1759, undertook an ambitious gardening programme which would make Hagley Park one of the most admired landscape gardens of the eighteenth century 1751, literary patron, accession to the House of Lords in November 1756, during the years of political controversy and instability which marked the eight successive ministries between 1757 and 1770 he declined to take office when offered to him, refused the offer of the Treasury made by the duke of Cumberland 1765, refused Cumberland's offer of a cabinet seat in the new Rockingham administration
Overall: Lyttelton was a prominent politician for the whig opposition and the group the Cobham circle. Though he began his published career as a poet, as a writer himself Lyttelton also contributed substantially to the opposition campaign. Lyttelton was close to Frederick Prince of Wales, and Lyttelton was widely perceived as the ‘Maecenas’ who brought deserving poets to his royal notice. In practice only a handful of poets—Richard Glover, James Thomson, and David Mallet—received financial reward, but Lyttelton undoubtedly helped use Frederick's influence to inspire and mobilize a campaign of patriot writing in the late 1730s. He had a complex relationship with Pope. He was also a literary patron himself, though he received some ridicule and Lyttelton was accused of using his wealth to gratify his vanity and unfairly sway literary opinion. Towards the end of his life he eschewed politics in favor of writing.
Jacob Sider Jost/ Mary Naydan/ Noah Fusco, “Poets of the 1730s: A Digital Humanities Seedling” (2017/ 2021)