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Sidmouth, Henry Addington, 1st Viscount 1757-1844
English politician

Born in London, he was educated at Winchester and Brasenose College, Oxford. He entered Parliament as MP for Devizes in 1783, and was elected Speaker of the House of Commons (1789-1801). When William Pitt, the Younger, resigned in 1801, he formed the administration which negotiated the Peace of Amiens in 1802. He was created Viscount Sidmouth in 1805 and held several Cabinet posts. As Home Secretary (1812-21) he took severe measures against Luddite rioters and suspended the Habeas Corpus Act; it was in his period of office that the 'Peterloo Massacre' took place in Manchester in 1819, during an open-air meeting in support of parliamentary reform.