Shelburne, William Petty, 2nd Earl of 1737-1805
English politician

Born in Dublin, the great-grandson of Sir William Petty, he studied at Christ Church, Oxford. He served in the army, entered parliament, succeeded his father to the earldom in 1761, and in 1763 was appointed President of the Board of Trade and in 1766 Secretary of State in the Earl of Chatham's second administration (1766). When Lord North's ministry fell in 1782 he declined to form a government, but became Secretary of State under Charles, Marquis of Rockingham. When Rockingham died the same year the king offered Shelburne the Treasury. Charles Fox resigned, and Shelburne introduced William Pitt, the Younger, into office as his Chancellor of the Exchequer, but this ministry fell when it was defeated by a coalition of Fox and North (February 1783). A radical, he was a strong advocate of free trade and Roman Catholic emancipation. At Lansdowne House and Bowood, Wiltshire, he collected an impressive gallery of pictures and a fine library.