Correspondence of Sir Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax

Comprises 9 autograph letters from Lord Halifax on various topics; and 1 letter/memorandum (to Halifax, unsigned) on the redistribution of parliamentary constituencies; includes also two press cuttings (1 portrait; 1 obituary notice)

Charles Wood was the eldest son of a Yorkshire baronet, Sir Francis Lindley Wood, and his wife, Anne, daughter of Samuel Buck, the Recorder of Leeds. He first entered Parliament in 1826 as MP for Grimsby, but from 1832 to 1866 represented the town of Halifax (serving initially as a Whig, but later as a Liberal). He held office as joint secretary to the Treasury, 1832-1834; secretary to the Admiralty, 1835-1839; and Chancellor of the Exchequer, from 1846 until 1852 when he was appointed President of the Board of Control. From 1855 to 1858 he was First Lord of the Admiralty and then secretary for India from 1859 to 1866. Created Viscount Halifax in 1866, he became Lord Privy Seal in 1870 and left office with the Liberals in 1874. He died at Hickleton in Yorkshire in August 1885

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Purchased from Morphet & Morphet, booksellers; January 1978

In English