GEORGE, Lord Lansdowne, was descended from a very ancient family, derived from Rollo the first duke of Normandy. At the age of eleven he was sent to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained five years; but at thirteen he was admitted to the degree of master of arts, having, before he was twelve, spoken a copy of verses of his own composition before the Duchess of York, at his college, when she paid a visit to the University of Cambridge. In 1696 his comedy called the She-Gallants was acted at the theatre-royal in Lincoln's-inn Fields, as his tragedy called Heroic Love was in the year 1698. In 1702 he translated into English the second Olynthiac of Demosthenes. He was member for the county of Cornwall in the parliament which met in 1710; and afterwards became secretary of war, comptroller of the household, then treasurer, and a member of the privy council. In the year following he was created Baron Lansdowne. On the accession of King George I. in 1714, he was removed from the office of treasurer; and the next year he entered his protest against the bills for attaining Lord Bolingbroke and the Duke of Ormond. He entered deeply into the scheme for raising an insurrection in the west of England; and being seized as a suspected person, was committed to the Tower, where he continued two years. In 1719 he delivered a speech in the House of Lords against the bill to prevent occasional conformity. In 1722 he withdrew to France, and continued abroad nearly ten years. At his return in 1732 he published a fine edition of his works in two vols. quarto, and died in 1735, leaving no male issue.

a sea-port town of France, in Lower Normandy, partly situated on a rock and partly on a plain. Long. 1. 32. W. Lat. 48. 50. N.