Chancellors of the Exchequer

According to the Dictionary of Dates, 

(the Exchequer is) "an ancient institution, consisting of officers with financial and judical functions: the chancellor of the exchequer, the financial officer, formerly sat in the court of exchequer above the barons. The first chancellor was Eustace de Fauconbridge, bishop of London, in the reign of Henry III. about 1221. Sir Robert Walpole was the last chancellor of the exchequer who acted judically (in 1735). The legal function of the chancellor was abolished by the Judicature Act, Aug. 1873".   

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is responsible for the budget of a government, which makes him the first scape-goat whenever so little money and so much time is left in a year. Many Prime Ministers acted as chancellors as well, while in more recent times this policy has changed (maybe to enable the Prime Minister to nominate another chancellor rather than to retire himself when the government runs out of money...).

In this chapter, I have listed the Chancellors of the Exchequer since the restoration (of King Charles II), 1660 - plus one earlier entry. Some Chancellors appear in the "Prime Minister"-sections already. They are just named here, but I didn´t give any further description or scanned signature here. If you haven´t done already, please follow the link and have a look for them in the "Prime Minister"-section.

This list gives the dates in office according to the Haydn´s Book of Dignities 1894. In a few cases, I have found slightly different dates, but these were not taken into consideration.  

On the  right, you can see the "budget box", or "Gladstone box", in which the budget speech is delivered to the House of Commons on "Budget Day". First used by W.E. Gladstone, all subsequent Chancellors (except James Callaghan, and now Gordon Brown) have used this box.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer lives in #11 Downing Street, next to his Prime Minister (except Gordon Brown, who has moved into #10, as Tony Blair and his family preferred the larger site at #11) .

(The remark "Lord Chancellor Justice" is given when - after the decease of the current Chancellor of the Exchequer - this person just fills the office temporarily before a new chancellor is found.)

Sir Walter Mildmay (c1520-89, on the left), one of the most important advisers of Queen Elizabeth I. He held several posts under her father, King Henry VIII, already, and even after that under King Edward VI and Queen Mary, but his influence rose under Queen Elizabeth. Knighted in 1547 already, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1566 and remained in this position until he died.

Sir Robert Long (-1673), chancellor 1660-61. Surprisingly, no year of birth can be found in reference books for this early post-restoration Chancellor (who was loyal to the monarchy during the civil-war), but he was a member of parliament in 1625 already, so I assume he was born around 1600 or slightly earlier.

Lord Anthony Ashley (1621-83, later the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury), chancellor 1661-72. He was one of the most important politicians in the mid-17th century, but was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1681 and died in exile in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Sir John Duncombe (?), chancellor 1672-79.

Laurence Hyde (1641-1711, later the Earl of Rochester), chancellor 1679. Please look for a closer description for him in the section Prime Ministers... before Walpole.

Sir John Ernle (1620-97), chancellor 1679-89.

Lord  Delamer (Henry Booth, 1652-94, later the Earl of Warrington), chancellor 1689-90.

Richard Hampden (1631-95), chancellor 1690-94. He was the son of Henry Hampden, a famous statesman during the reign of King Charles I.

Lord Sidney Godolphin (1645-1712, later the 1st Earl of Godolphin), chancellor 1694-95. Please look for a closer description for him in the section Prime Ministers... before Walpole.

Charles Montague (1661-1715, later the 1st Earl of Halifax), chancellor 1695-99. Please look for a closer description for him in the section Prime Ministers... before Walpole.

John Smith (1655-1723), chancellor 1699-1701 and 1708-10. This Whig-politician sat in parliament 1678-1723, quite a long time even in those days.

Henry Boyle (-1725, later Lord Carleton), chancellor 1701-08.  

Sir Robert Harley (1661-1724, later the Earl of Oxford), chancellor 1710-11. Please look for a closer description for him in the section Prime Ministers... before Walpole.

Robert Benson (1676-1731, later Lord Bingley), chancellor 1711-13.

Sir William Wyndham (1687-1740), chancellor 1713-14.

Sir Richard Onslow (1654-1717, later Lord Onslow), chancellor 1714-15. He was also speaker of the House of Commons, like his great-great-grandfather before him.

Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745, later the 1st Earl of Orford), chancellor 1715-17, and 1721-42 (when he was Prime Minister as well).

James Stanhope (1673-1721, later the Earl Stanhope), chancellor 1717-18. Please look for a closer description for him in the section Prime Ministers... before Walpole.

John Aislabie (1670-1742), chancellor 1718-21.

Sir John Pratt (1657-1725), chancellor 1721 (lord chancellor justice).

Samuel Sandys (1695-1770, later Lord Sandys), chancellor 1742-43.

Henry Pelham (1696-1754), chancellor 1743-54 (when he was Prime Minister as well).

Sir William Lee (1688-1754), chancellor 1754 (lord chancellor justice).

Henry Bilson Legge (1708-1764), chancellor 1754-55, 1756-57, and 1757-61.

Sir George Lyttelton (1709-1773, later Lord Lyttelton), chancellor 1755-56.

Lord William Mansfield (?), chancellor 1757 and 1767 (lord chancellor justice).

The Viscount Barrington (William Wildman Barrington, 1717-1793), chancellor 1761-62.

Sir Francis Dashwood (1708-1781, later Lord Le Despencer), chancellor 1762-63.

George Grenville (1712-70), chancellor 1763-65 (when he was Prime Minister as well).

William Dowdeswell (1721-75), chancellor 1765-66.

Charles Townshend (1725-67), chancellor 1766-67.

Lord North (Frederick North, 1732-92), chancellor 1767-82 (Prime Minister as well since 1770).

Lord John Cavendish (1732-96), chancellor 1782 and 1783.

William Pitt, the Younger (1759-1806), chancellor 1782, and 1783-1801, 1804-06 (when he was Prime Minister as well).

Henry Addington (1757-1844, later the Viscount Sidmouth), chancellor 1801-04 (when he was Prime Minister as well).

Lord Ellenborough (Edward Law, 1750-1818), chancellor 1806 (lord chancellor justice). He served for a few weeks only after Pitt died in January 1806, until the new Prime Minister, the Duke of Portland, appointed a new chancellor of the exchequer in February.

Lord Henry Petty (1780-1863, later the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne), chancellor 1806-07. From a family with great political influence, his father was Prime Minister, his grandson became foreign secretary.

Spencer Perceval (1762-1812), chancellor 1807-12 (Prime Minister as well since 1809).

Nicholas Vansittart (1766-1851, later Lord Bexley), chancellor 1812-23. A long political career, he held important offices in governments of the Younger Pitt to the Earl of Liverpool. The signature on the left is dated January 1823, a few days after he resigned as chancellor, and a few days before he was created Lord Bexley.

Frederick John Robinson (1782-1859, later the Viscount Goderich and the Earl of Ripon), chancellor 1823-27 (Prime Minister 1827-28).

George Canning (1770-1827), chancellor 1827 (when he was Prime Minister as well).

John Charles Herries (1778-1855), chancellor 1827-28.

Henry Goulburn (1784-1856), chancellor 1828-30, and 1841-46.

The Viscount Althorpe (John Charles Spencer, 1782-1845 , later the Earl Spencer), chancellor 1830-34.

Lord Denman (Thomas Denman, 1779-1854), chancellor 1834 (lord chancellor justice).

Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850), chancellor 1834-35 (when he was Prime Minister as well).

Thomas Spring Rice (1790-1866, later Lord Monteagle), chancellor 1835-39.

Sir Francis Thornhill Baring (1796-1866, later Lord Northbrook), chancellor 1839-41. A grandson of the founder of the financial house "Baring Brothers & Co".

Sir Charles Wood (1800-85, later the 1st Viscount Halifax), chancellor 1846-52.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881, later the Earl of Beaconsfield), chancellor 1852, 1858-59, and 1866-68 (Prime Minister 1868, and 1874-80).

William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), chancellor 1852-55, 1859-66, 1873-74, and 1880-82 (Prime Minister 1868-74, 1880-85, 1886, and 1892-94).

Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863, right), chancellor 1855-58. He later served as home secretary (1859-61) and secretary for war (1861-63).

George Ward Hunt (1825-77, left), chancellor 1868.

Robert Lowe (1811-92, the 1st Viscount Sherbrooke since 1880, right), chancellor 1868-73. He then served as home secretary (1873-74).

Sir Stafford Henry Northcote (1818-87, later the Earl of Iddesleigh), chancellor 1874-80.

Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (1827-96), chancellor 1882-85. He started as an inspector of schools in Melbourne, and began his political career in Australia as well.

Sir Michael Edward Hicks-Beach (1837-1916, later the 1st Earl of Aldwyn), chancellor 1885-86, and 1895-1902.

Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt (1827-1904), chancellor 1886, and 1892-95; Home secretary under Gladstone 1880-85 already, he served him as Chancellor until 1894, then his successor Rosebery. Harcourt established the tax for total estates of deceased persons in 1894.

Lord Churchill (Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, 1849-95), chancellor 1886. He was Winston S. Churchill´s father.

George Joachim Goschen (1831-1907, later the 1st Viscount Goschen), chancellor 1887-92. The grandson of a German publisher, he was one of the most significant figures in political and public life.

Charles Thomson Ritchie (1838-1906, later Lord Ritchie), chancellor 1902-03.

Sir Austen Chamberlain (1863-1937), chancellor 1903-05, and 1919-21. He came from a political important family: His father Joseph was Secretary for the Colonies (1895-1903), his brother Neville became Prime Minister (1938-40). Austen Chamberlain was honoured with the Peace Nobel-Price in 1925. 

Herbert Asquith (1852-1928, later the 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith), chancellor 1905-08 (Prime Minister 1908-16).

David Lloyd George (1863-1945, later the 1st Earl of Lloyd-George), chancellor 1908-15 (Prime Minister 1916-22).

Reginald McKenna (1863-1943, right), chancellor 1915-16.

Andrew Bonar Law (1858-1923), chancellor 1916-19 (Prime Minister 1922-23).

Sir Robert Stevenson Horne (1871-1940, left, later the 1st Viscount Horne), chancellor 1921-22.

Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947, later the 1st Earl Baldwin), chancellor 1922-23 (Prime Minister 1923-24, 1924-29, and 1935-37).

Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940), chancellor 1923-24, and 1931-37 (Prime Minister 1937-40).

Philip Snowden (1864-1937, later the Viscount Snowden), chancellor 1924, and 1929-31.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965), chancellor 1924-29 (Prime Minister 1940-45, and 1951-55).

Sir John Simon (1873-1954, later the 1st Viscount Simon), chancellor 1937-40.

Sir Kingsley Wood (1881-1943), chancellor 1940-43.

Sir John Anderson (1882-1958, later 1st Viscount Waverley, on the left, below, as 'Lord Privy Seal' shortly before he became home-secretary), chancellor 1943-45. He was home-secretary 1939-40, during which the 2nd World War broke out; he initiated the development of a kind of air-raid-shelter named the 'Anderson Shelter', a small sheet metal cylinder made of prefabricated pieces that could be assembled in a garden.

Hugh Dalton (1887-1962, later Lord Dalton), chancellor 1945-47.

Sir Stafford Cripps (1889-1952), chancellor 1947-50.

Hugh Gaitskell (1906-63), chancellor 1950-51. He was leader of the Labour Party 1955-63.

R.A. Butler (1902-82, later Lord Butler of Saffron Walden), chancellor 1951-55. He was one of the few politicians who held the important offices of chancellor, foreign- and home-secretary, under Churchill, Macmillan and Home. He was in charge of the government during PM Eden´s illness.  

Harold Macmillan (1894-1986, later the 1st Earl of Stockton), chancellor 1955-57 (Prime Minister 1957-63).

Peter Thorneycroft (1909-94, later Lord Thorneycroft), chancellor 1957-58.

Derek Heathcoat Amory (1899-1981, later the 1st Viscount Amory), chancellor 1958-60.

Selwyn Lloyd (1904-78, later Lord Selwyn-Lloyd), chancellor 1960-62 (see signed photo on the  right; click on it to see a more detailed scan of the signature).

Reginald Maudling (1917-79, left), chancellor 1962-64. In 1965, he was narrowly defeated by Edward Heath in the first Conservative leadership election, was home-secretary under Heath 1970-72..

James Callaghan (*1912), chancellor 1964-67 (Prime Minister 1976-79).

Roy Jenkins (1920-2003, later Lord Jenkins, on the left), chancellor 1967-70.

Iain Macleod (1913-70), chancellor 1970; he was chancellor already in the shadow-cabinet of Edward Heath 1965-70, but died after five weeks in the actual office.

Anthony Barber (*1920, later Lord Barber), chancellor 1970-74.

Denis Healey (*1918, later Lord Healey, on the left), chancellor 1974-79.

Sir Geoffrey Howe (*1926, later Lord Howe, on the right), chancellor 1979-83.

Nigel Lawson (*1932, later Lord Lawson of Blaby, on the right), chancellor 1983-89.

John Major (*1943), chancellor 1989-90 (Prime Minister 1990-97).

Norman Lamont (*1942), chancellor 1990-93.

Kenneth Clarke (*1940, on the right, below), chancellor 1993-97.

Gordon Brown (*1951), chancellor 1997-2007 (Prime Minister 2007-).

Alistair Darling (*1953, on the left, from a Christmas card), chancellor 2007-.