Statesman, born in London, the son of a physician; studied at Oxford, and was called to the bar, but gave up law for politics, entered Parliament in 1783, and was Speaker from 1789 till 1801, in which year, after the fall of Pitt over Catholic emancipation, he formed a ministry, assuming himself the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer. This ministry of the "King's Friends" went out of office in 1804, after negotiating the Peace of Amiens (1802), and in subsequent governments of Pitt Sidmouth held various offices, being an unpopular Home Secretary from 1812 to 1821; created viscount in 1805 (1757-1844).