LYTTELTON, GEORGE, Lord, was born at Hagley, in Worcestershire, in 1709. Descended from the great Judge Lyttelton (see LYTTELTON, Thomas), he was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, who, during the interregnum of 1688 and the succeeding reign, appears as one of the ablest Whig debaters of the House of Commons. Mr Macaulay (History of England, vol. ii., p. 617) describes him as "versed in European politics, and gifted with a vehement and piercing logic, which had often, when, after a long sitting, the candles had been lighted, roused the languishing house, and decided the event of the debate." He received his education at Eton school, where he showed an early inclination to poetry. He was removed from thence to the university of Oxford, where he pursued his classical studies with uncommon avidity, and sketched the plan of his Persian Letters. In the year 1728 he set out on the tour of Europe; and, upon his arrival at Paris, accidentally became acquainted with the Honourable Mr Poyntz, then our minister at the court of Versailles, who employed him in many political negotiations, which he executed with great judgment and fidelity. In this early part of his life he wrote a poetical epistle to Dr Ayscough, and another to Mr Pope, both evincing singular taste and correctness.
After continuing a considerable time at Paris he visited Lyons, Geneva, Turin, Milan, Venice, and Genoa, and finally established himself at Rome, where he applied himself closely to the study of the fine arts. He soon afterwards returned to his native country, and was elected representative for the borough of Ockhampton, in Devonshire. In the year 1737 he was appointed principal secretary to his royal highness, Frederick Prince of Wales; and in the year
1742 he married Lucy, the daughter of Mr Hugh Fortescue Lyttelton, of Filleigh, in the county of Devon, an excellent lady, whom he had the misfortune to lose in 1746. In 1744 he was appointed one of the lords commissioners of the Treasury; and, during his continuance in that station, constantly exerted his influence in rewarding merit and ability. He was the friend and patron of Fielding, Thomson, Mallet, Young, Hammond, West, Pope, and Voltaire. On the death of Thomson, who left his affairs in a very embarrassed condition, Mr Lyttelton took that poet's sister under his protection. He revised Thomson's unfinished tragedy of Coriolanus, and brought it out at the theatre royal, Covent Garden, with an affecting prologue of his own composition.
His valuable observations on the conversion and apostleship of St Paul were written in 1747, at the desire of Mr Gilbert West, in consequence of Mr Lyttelton's asserting, that besides all the proofs of the Christian religion which might be drawn from the prophecies of the Old Testament, from the necessary connection it has with the whole system of the Jewish religion, from the miracles of Christ, and from the evidence given of his resurrection by all the other apostles, he thought the conversion of St Paul alone, duly considered, was of itself a demonstration sufficient to prove that Christianity was a divine revelation. Dr Johnson characterizes this treatise as one "to which infidelity has never been able to fabricate a specious answer."
In 1754 he resigned his office of lord of the Treasury, and was made cofferer to his majesty's household, and sworn a member of the Privy Council; previously to which, he married a second time, Elizabeth, daughter of Field-Marshall Sir Robert Rich, from whom he was separated, by mutual consent, a few years after his marriage. After being appointed chancellor and under-treasurer of the Court of Exchequer, he was, by letters-patent dated the 19th of November 1757 (31st Geo. II.), created a peer of Great Britain, by the style and title of Lord Lyttelton, Baron of Frankley, in the county of Worcester. His parliamentary speeches showed sound judgment, ready eloquence, and inflexible integrity. During the last ten years he lived chiefly in retirement, devoting himself for the most part to literature. His Dialogues of the Dead, in which the morality of Fénelon and the spirit of Fontenelle are happily united, appeared in 1760. His History of Henry II., a laborious and respectable production, the fruit of twenty years' labour, was published in 1764-67. He died in 1773.
A complete collection of his works was published after his decease by his nephew, Mr George Ayscough. (See Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Lyttelton, 1734-1773, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1845.)