William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland

File:John Powell (active 1769-1785) - William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (1738–1809), 3rd Duke of Portland (after Joshua Reynolds) - 932291 - National Trust.jpg

William Henry, Lord Titchfield, was born on 14 April 1738 at Bulstrode Park in Buckinghamshire.{{Cite web |title=William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd duke of Portland {{!}} prime minister of Great Britain {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Henry-Cavendish-Bentinck-3rd-Duke-of-Portland |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} 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,{{cite web|title=Line of descent of the Earls and Dukes of Portland|url=http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/documents/collectionsindepth/family/line-of-descent-of-the-earls-and-dukes-of-portland.pdf|publisher=University of Nottingham|access-date=24 March 2015}}[http://longford.nottingham.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=(AltRefNo=='Pl-F3') Settlements, mortgages, litigation, Acts of Parliament etc. relating to the 'maternal' estates of the Dukes of Portland; 1583–1790] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606223407/http://longford.nottingham.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=(AltRefNo=='Pl-F3') |date=6 June 2013}}, University of Nottingham, UK.[http://longford.nottingham.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=(AltRefNo=='Ne-M') Series of manorial papers in the Newcastle (Clumber) Collection (1st Deposit); 1357–1867] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606210934/http://longford.nottingham.ac.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=(AltRefNo=='Ne-M') |date=6 June 2013}}, The University of Nottingham, UK. who was the daughter of John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Portland, William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of|volume=22|page=119}} He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated MA in 1757.{{cite web|url=http://www.historyhome.co.uk/pms/portland.htm|title=William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738-1809)|website=www.historyhome.co.uk|access-date=27 May 2019}}

In December 1757, the nineteen-year-old Lord Titchfield was sent to study under Lord Stormont for a year in Warsaw, accompanied by Stormont's secretary, Benjamin Langlois. Stormont was to superintend all expenditures on his equipage, while Langlois was to hire local masters and direct the studies of the teenaged Titchfield. The books he directed him to read were ancient history, modern history and general law.{{Cite book |last=Poser |first=Norman S. |url=http://archive.org/details/lordmansfieldjus0000pose |title=Lord Mansfield : justice in the age of reason |date=2013 |publisher=Montreal & Kingston ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-7735-4183-2}}

In 1759, Titchfield travelled with Langlois through Germany to Italy, spent a year in Turin, and then went on to Florence. When Stormont was appointed ambassador to Vienna in 1763, Langlois went with him as Secretary of the embassy.{{cite web |title=LANGLOIS, Benjamin (1727-1802). |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/langlois-benjamin-1727-1802 |accessdate=19 October 2017 |publisher=History of Parliament Online}}

File:Dorothy Cavendish, wife of William Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (1738-1809) by George Romney.jpg, by George Romney, {{Circa|1772}}]]

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 nine children, six of whom survived to adulthood:

• William Henry Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland (24 June 1768{{snd}}27 March 1854)
• Lt Gen Lord William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck (14 September 1774{{snd}}17 June 1839)
• Lady Charlotte Cavendish-Bentinck (2 October 1775{{snd}}28 July 1862),The Register of Births and Baptisms in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster. 1761-1786. 30 October 1775. who married Charles Greville.{{cite web|title=Harriet Catherine Greville|url=http://www.anatpro.com/index_files/Harriet_Catherine_Greville.htm}}
• Lady Mary Cavendish-Bentinck (13 March 1779{{snd}}6 November 1843)The Register of Births and Baptisms in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster. 1761-1786. 13 April 1778.
• Lord William Charles Augustus Cavendish-Bentinck (20 May 1780{{snd}}28 April 1826),The Register of Births and Baptisms in the Parish of St James within the Liberty of Westminster. 1761-1786. 17 June 1780. an ancestor of the 6th Duke of Portland and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother).
• Lord Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck (2 November 1781{{snd}}11 February 1828), an ancestor of the 8th and 9th Duke of Portland.

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).

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.{{cite book |last=Wilkinson |first=David |title=The Duke of Portland – Politics and Party in the Age of George III |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Basingstoke, UK / New York City |date=2003 |pages=35–38 |isbn=978-0333963852}} 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.Wilkinson pp 38–41 Following Rockingham's death, Portland resigned from Lord Shelburne's ministry along with other supporters of Charles James Fox.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Bentinck, William Henry Cavendish |first=Henry Morse|last=Stephens|volume=4}}

{{further|Fox–North coalition}}

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.Wilkinson p 56

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.Wilkinson p150-7 He continued to serve in the cabinet until Pitt's death in 1806, from 1801 to 1805 as Lord President of the Council and then as a Minister without Portfolio.

{{further|Second Portland ministry}}

In March 1807, after the collapse of the Ministry of all the Talents, Pitt's former 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.

File:3DukePortlandPlaque.jpeg]]

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.{{cite web |title=The Edinburgh Annual Register for 1809 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O2IJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA291 |publisher=John Ballantyne and Company |date=1811 |via=Google Books}}

He had lived expensively: with an income of £17,000 a year (worth £577,000 in 2005),[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/results.asp#mid] National Archives currency converter. 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.{{cite book |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 5 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |pages=268–269 |isbn=978-0-19-861355-8}}

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.

{{Unreferenced section|date=December 2022}}

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. Great Portland Street tube station, opened in 1863, takes its name from the latter.

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{{Cite web|url=https://www.harleygallery.co.uk/whats-on/the-portland-collection-museum/george-stubbs/|title=George Stubbs // The Portland Collection // The Harley Gallery|website=Harley Gallery}} of fine and decorative art includes pieces owned and commissioned by him, including paintings by George Stubbs.

{{Infobox COA wide

|image = Coat of Arms of the Duke of Portland.svg

|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)

}}

• The Duke of Portland—First Lord of the Treasury
• Lord Stormont—Lord President of the Council
• Lord Carlisle—Lord Privy Seal
• Lord North—Secretary of State for the Home Department
• Charles James Fox—Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• The Viscount Keppel—First Lord of the Admiralty
• Lord John Cavendish—Chancellor of the Exchequer
• The Viscount Townshend—Master-General of the Ordnance
• Lord Northington—Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland
• The Great Seal is in Commission

• The Duke of Portland—First Lord of the Treasury
• Lord Eldon—Lord Chancellor
• Lord Camden—Lord President of the Council
• Lord Westmorland—Lord Privy Seal
• Lord Hawkesbury, after 1808, Lord Liverpool – Secretary of State for the Home Department
• George Canning—Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Lord Castlereagh—Secretary of State for War and the Colonies
• Lord Mulgrave—First Lord of the Admiralty
• Spencer Perceval—Chancellor of the Exchequer and of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Lord Chatham—Master-General of the Ordnance
• Lord Bathurst—President of the Board of Trade

;Changes

• July 1809—Lord Harrowby, the President of the Board of Control, and Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, the Secretary at War, enter the Cabinet

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| 1= 1. William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland

| 2= 2. William Bentinck, 2nd Duke of Portland

| 3= 3. Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley

| 4= 4. Henry Bentinck, 1st Duke of Portland

| 5= 5. Lady Elizabeth Noel

| 6= 6. Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer

| 7= 7. Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles

| 8= 8. William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland

| 9= 9. Anne Villiers

| 10= 10. Wriothesley Noel, 2nd Earl of Gainsborough

| 11= 11. The Hon. Catherine Greville

| 12= 12. Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer

| 13= 13. Elizabeth Foley

| 14= 14. John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle

| 15= 15. Lady Margaret Cavendish

}}

{{reflist|2}}

{{Commons}}

• [http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/duke-of-portland/ William Bentinck, Duke of Portland] profile on the 10 Downing Street website
• [http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/manuscriptsandspecialcollections/collectionsindepth/family/portland/biographies/biographyofwilliamhenrycavendishcavendish-bentinck,3rddukeofportland(1738-1809).aspx Biography of the 3rd Duke, with links to online catalogues, from Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham]
• {{NPG name|name=William Henry Cavendish Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland}}
• {{UK National Archives ID}}

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