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Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, KG , PC (April 13, 1732 – August 5, 1792), more often known by his earlier title, Lord North, was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782, and a major actor in the American Revolution. Lord North was born at Wroxton Abbey as the eldest of six children; his parents were Francis, first Earl of Guilford, and Lady Lucy Montagu. The other children came from Guilford's second marriage. North had a full sister Lucy who is said to have married a tradesman, whereupon her family denied her existence; however, recent research has failed to find any contemporary evidence of the period to support that story beyond any reasonable doubt. He was educated at Eton College between 1742 and 1748, and at Trinity College, Oxford where in 1750 he was awarded an MA. After leaving Oxford he travelled in Europe, visiting Leipzig where he studied at the University of Leipzig. He visited Vienna, Milan and Paris, returning to England in 1753. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1754 to 1790 and first joined the government as a junior Lord of the Treasury on June 2, 1759 during the Newcastle-Pitt coalition. North was appointed Joint Paymaster of the Forces in Chatham's ministry and became a Privy Counsellor in 1766. In December, 1767, he succeeded Charles Townshend as Chancellor of the Exchequer. When the Duke of Grafton resigned as Prime Minister, North formed a government on January 28, 1770. He resigned on March 27, 1782, after a vote of no confidence — the first ever — resulting from the British defeat at Yorktown the year before. (He is famously supposed to have cried, "Oh God! It's all over! It's all over!" when this happened). Most of his government was focused first on the growing problems with the American colonies and later on the actual Revolutionary War. In April, 1783, North returned to power as Home Secretary in an unlikely coalition with the radical Whig leader Charles James Fox known as the Fox-North Coalition under the nominal leadership of The Duke of Portland. George III, who detested Fox, never forgave this supposed betrayal, and North never again served in government after the ministry fell in December, 1783. He left his seat in Parliament when he went blind in 1790. Later he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Guilford, so he spent his final years in the House of Lords. He died on August 7, 1792 in London and was buried at All Saints' Church, Wroxton (Oxfordshire) near his family home of Wroxton Abbey. Ironically, North's family home, Wroxton Abbey is now owned by Fairleigh Dickinson University, an American college. The now modernized abbey currently serves as a location for American students to study abroad.
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