George Tierney

[
James Gillray caricatured Tierney as a French executioner.]

George Tierney (20 March 1761 – 25 January 1830) was an English Whig politician, was born at Gibraltar. He was the son of a wealthy Irish merchant of London, who was living there as prize agent.

He was sent to Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took the degree of Law in 1784, and was called to the bar; but he abandoned law and plunged into politics. He contested Colchester in 1788, when both candidates received the same number of votes, but Tierney was declared elected. He was, however, defeated in 1790. He sat for Southwark from 1796 to 1806, and then represented in turn Athlone (1806-1807), Bandon (1807-1812), Appleby (1812-1818), and Knaresborough (1818-1830).

When Fox seceded from the House of Commons, Tierney became a prominent opponent of Pitt's policy. In May 1798, Pitt accused him of want of patriotism. A duel ensued at Putney Heath on Sunday, 27 May 1798; but neither combatant was injured.

In 1803, Tierney, partly because peace had been ratified with France and partly because Pitt was out of office, joined the ministry of Addington as Treasurer of the Navy, and was created a Privy Councillor; but this alienated many of his supporters among the middle classes, and offended most of the influential Whigs. On the death of Fox, he joined (1806) the Grenville ministry as President of the Board of Control, with a seat in the cabinet, and thus brought himself once more into line with the Whigs.

About a year after the death of George Ponsonby in 1817, Tierney reluctantly became the recognized leader of the opposition in the House of Commons. At first he was successful, with Whig gains being made at the 1818 general election. On 18 May 1819, Tierney moved a motion in the House of Commons for a committee on the state of the nation. This motion was defeated by 357 to 178, which was a division involving the largest number of MPs until the debates over the Reform bill in the early 1830s. Foord comments that "this defeat put an effective end to Tierney's leadership ... Tierney did not disclaim the leadership till 23 Jan. 1821 ..., but he had ceased to exercise its functions since the great defeat".

In Canning's ministry, he was Master of the Mint, and when Lord Goderich succeeded to the lead Tierney was admitted to the cabinet; but he was already suffering from ill-health and died suddenly at Savile Row, London.

References

* "Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland 1801-1922", edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978).
* "His Majesty's Opposition 1714-1830", by Archibald S. Foord (Oxford University Press 1964)