ADDINGTON HENRY 1757-1844 VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH

Petitions and letters by and concerning convicts, to Lord Sidmouth, Secretary of State for the Home Department.

Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth 1757-1844

British Tory politician, prime minister 1801-04. Addington was the son of a physician. He was Home Secretary 1812-1822. During this time he had the responsibility of dealing with social unrest in Britain. This included making machine-breaking an offence punishable by death. On one day alone, fourteen Luddites were executed in York. Social unrest continued and in 1817, Sidmouth was responsible for the passing of what became known as the Gagging Acts. These measures banned meetings of over fifty people and instructed magistrates to arrest everyone suspected of spreading seditious libel.

This resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of radical journalists such as Richard Carlile (1790-1843).

Addington was created Viscount in 1805. He entered Parliament in 1784 and in 1789, through the sponsorship of the statesman William Pitt (1759-1806), and became speaker of the House of Commons. He subscribed to Pitts policies in the French wars, and when Pitt resigned because of George III's refusal to approve Catholic Emancipation, Addington became (1801) prime minister. The chief event of his administration was the Treaty of Amiens (1802) with Napoleon I. On the renewal of war, his ministry yielded (1804) to Pitt.

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