Sir Charles Hotham-Thompson, Bt.

Charles Hotham was born in 1729, the eldest son of Beaumont Hotham and his wife Frances Thompson. His uncle, Charles, was fifth baronet Hotham of South Dalton in the East Riding.

From http://www.hull.ac.uk/oldlib/archives/paragon/1996/hotham.html

His correspondence tells us much about the Georgian court and central politics as well as the Seven Years War. Ironically, by the end of his life much of what he had cherished and fought for was disappearing. In 1778 he had sadly noted in a letter 'we are probably to lose the empire of America' and in 1783 colonies gained at the Peace of Paris were lost again at the end of the American War of Independence. In 1788 his beloved king only just survived another Regency crisis and it was clear that George III's health was very precarious. And parliamentary politics, apart from being besieged by the demands of political radicalism (which the French Revolution threw into very sharp relief), was changing beyond his comprehension. In his auto-biographical notes he recorded:

'When I first knew the House of Commons, it was a noble school for young men. I wish it were still, and that it may become so again'.

Links

• http://www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk/online/content/index547.htm