Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Temple,_2nd_Viscount_Palmerston

Henry Temple, 2nd Viscount Palmerston FRS (4 December 1739 – 16 April 1802) was a British politician.

Life

He succeeded to the peerage in 1757, and was educated at Clare College, Cambridge from 1757 to 1759.

As a member of the British House of Commons, he represented the constituencies of East Looe between 1762 and 1768, Southampton between 1768 to 1774, Hastings between 1774 and 1784, Boroughbridge between 1784 and 1790, Newport, Isle of Wight between 1790 and 1796, and Winchester between 1796 and his death in 1802.

He was appointed to the Board of Trade in 1765, was a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty between 1766 and 1777, and was a Lord of the Treasury from 1777 to 1782.

In 1763 Temple journeyed to Italy, staying with Voltaire at Ferney en route. He reached Rome in 1764, and from there visited Paestum, south of Naples. He bought antiquities and paintings from Gavin Hamilton, antiquities from Giovanni Battista Piranesi, paintings from Angelica Kauffman, cameos from Giovanni Pichler and sculpture from Joseph Nollekens.

Temple married in 1767, but his wife died suddenly in 1769.

He died on 16 April 1802. His son, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century.

A portrait of Henry Temple by Angelica Kauffman is held at Broadlands, Hampshire.