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Great Britain
Office of the Secretary of State for the Northern Department
Great Britain; Office of the Secretary of State for the Northern Department
	Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Great Britain Government
	Longest serving; William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington; 19 June 1730 – 12 February 1742
	The Northern Department
Style	The Right Honourable; (Formal prefix)
Member of	British Cabinet
Seat	Westminster, London
Appointer	The British Monarch; on advice of the Prime Minister
Term length	No fixed term
Formation	1660-1782
First holder	Sir William Morice
Final holder	David Murray, 7th Viscount Stormont

The Secretary of State for the Northern Department was a position in the Cabinet of the government of Great Britain up to 1782. Then the Northern Department became the Foreign Office and the position evolved into the Foreign Secretary.^[1]^[2]

History

Before the Act of Union, 1707, the Secretary of State's responsibilities were in relation to the English government, not the British. Even after the Union, there was still a separate Secretary of State for Scotland until 1746, though the post was sometimes vacant. This continued the previous Scottish government post of Secretary of State.

Before 1782, the responsibilities of the two Secretaries of State for the Northern and the Southern Departments were not divided up in terms of area of authority, but rather geographically. The Secretary of State for the Northern Department was responsible for relations with the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Poland, Russia, and the Holy Roman Empire. The Secretary of State for the Southern Department was responsible for Ireland, the Channel Islands, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, the Italian states, and the Ottoman Empire. He was also responsible for the American colonies until 1768, when the charge was given to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Domestic responsibilities in England and Wales were shared between the two Secretaries. After the union with Scotland in 1707, the two secretaries also took responsibility for Scotland when there was no Secretary of State for Scotland in office.^[3]

Until 1706, the practice was generally for the senior official to lead the Southern Department, and the junior the Northern Department, with the Northern Secretary being transferred to the Southern Department when a vacancy arose at the latter.^[3] During the reigns of George I and George II, however, the Northern Department began to be seen as the more important, since its responsibilities included the monarchs' ancestral home of Hanover.^[4] During the reign of George III, the two departments were of approximately equal importance.^[5]

In 1782, the two Secretaries of State were reformed as the Secretary of State for the Home Department and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.^[6] During the 18th century, Secretaries of State for the Northern Department, if peers, were often Leaders of the House of Lords as well.

Secretaries of State for the Northern Department, 1660–1782

Included:^[7]

Name Constituency	Term of office		Notes
Sir William Morice MP for Plymouth	27 May 1660	29 September 1668
Sir John Trevor MP for Arundel until 1661 MP for Great Bedwyn after 1661	29 September 1668	8 July 1672
Henry Coventry MP for Droitwich	3 July 1672	11 September 1674
Sir Joseph Williamson MP for Thetford	11 September 1674	20 February 1679
Robert Spencer The Earl of Sunderland	10 February 1679	26 April 1680
Sir Leoline Jenkins MP for Oxford University	26 April 1680	2 February 1681
Edward Conway The Earl of Conway	2 February 1681	January 1683
Robert Spencer The Earl of Sunderland	28 January 1683	1684
Sidney Godolphin MP for Helston	17 April 1684	24 August 1684
Charles Middleton The Earl of Middleton MP for Winchelsea after 1685	24 August 1684	28 October 1688
Richard Graham The Viscount Preston MP for Cumberland	29 October 1688	2 December 1688
Daniel Finch The Earl of Nottingham	5 March 1689	26 December 1690
Henry Sydney The Viscount Sydney	26 December 1690	3 March 1692
Sir John Trenchard MP for Poole	23 March 1693	2 March 1694
Charles Talbot The Duke of Shrewsbury	2 March 1694	3 May 1695
Sir William Trumbull MP for Oxford University	3 May 1695	2 December 1697
James Vernon MP for Penryn until 1699 MP for Westminster after 1699	2 December 1697	5 November 1700
Sir Charles Hedges MP for Malmesbury	5 November 1700	29 December 1701
James Vernon MP for Westminster	4 January 1702	1 May 1702
Sir Charles Hedges MP for Malmesbury until 1702 MP for Calne after 1702	2 May 1702	18 May 1704
Robert Harley MP for Radnor	16 May 1704	13 February 1708
Henry Boyle MP for Westminster	13 February 1708	21 September 1710
Henry St John The Viscount Bolingbroke MP for Berkshire until 1712 Viscount Bolingbroke after 1712	21 September 1710	17 August 1713
Sir William Bromley MP for Oxford University	17 August 1713	17 September 1714
Charles Townshend The Viscount Townshend	17 September 1714	12 December 1716
James Stanhope	12 December 1716	12 April 1717
Charles Spencer The Earl of Sunderland	12 April 1717	2 March 1718
James Stanhope The Earl Stanhope	19 March 1718	4 February 1721
John Carteret The Lord Carteret	5 February 1721	21 February 1721
Charles Townshend 2nd Viscount Townshend	21 February 1721	16 May 1730
William Stanhope The Lord Harrington	19 June 1730	12 February 1742
John Carteret The Lord Carteret	12 February 1742	24 November 1744
William Stanhope The Earl of Harrington	24 November 1744	January 1746
John Carteret The Earl Granville	12 February 1746	March 1746	as sole Secretary
William Stanhope The Earl of Harrington	March 1746	19 October 1746
Philip Dormer Stanhope The Earl of Chesterfield	29 October 1746	6 February 1748
Thomas Pelham-Holles The Duke of Newcastle	6 February 1748	23 March 1754
Robert Darcy The Earl of Holdernesse	April 1757	June 1757	as sole Secretary
John Stuart The Earl of Bute	25 March 1761	27 May 1762
George Grenville MP for Buckingham	5 June 1762	9 October 1762
George Montagu-Dunk The Earl of Halifax	14 October 1762	9 September 1763
John Montagu The Earl of Sandwich	9 September 1763	10 July 1765
George Montagu-Dunk The Earl of Halifax	September 1763	July 1765
Augustus Henry Fitzroy The Duke of Grafton	12 July 1765	14 May 1766
Henry Seymour Conway MP for Thetford	23 May 1766	20 January 1768
Thomas Thynne The Viscount Weymouth	20 January 1768	21 October 1768
William Nassau de Zuylestein The Earl of Rochford	21 October 1768	19 December 1770
John Montagu The Earl of Sandwich	19 December 1770	12 January 1771
George Montagu-Dunk The Earl of Halifax	22 January 1771	6 June 1771
Henry Howard The Earl of Suffolk	12 June 1771	7 March 1779
David Murray The Viscount Stormont	27 October 1779	27 March 1782

References

^ "The FCO: Policy, People and Places (1782-1995)". FCO Historians. History Notes (2). Foreign and Commonwealth Office: 1. April 1991.
^ "The National Archives' catalogue: Records assembled by the State Paper Office, including papers of the Secretaries of State up to 1782". The National Archives.
^ ^a ^b Thomson, Mark A. (1932). The Secretaries of State: 1681-1782. London: Frank Cass. pp. 2–3.
^ Cass (1932), pp. 21-22
^ Cass (1932), p. 4
^ Sainty, J. C. (1973). "Introduction". Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 2 - Officials of the Secretaries of State 1660-1782. University of London. pp. 1–21 – via British History Online. At the Restoration [in 1660] the practice of appointing two Secretaries of State, which was well established before the Civil War, was resumed. Apart from the modifications which were made necessary by the occasional existence of a third secretaryship, the organisation of the secretariat underwent no fundamental change from that time until the reforms of 1782 which resulted in the emergence of the Home and Foreign departments. ... English domestic affairs remained the responsibility of both Secretaries throughout the period. In the field of foreign affairs there was a division into a Northern and a Southern Department, each of which was the responsibility of one Secretary. The distinction between the two departments emerged only gradually. It was not until after 1689 that their names passed into general currency. Nevertheless the division of foreign business itself can, in its broad outlines, be detected in the early years of the reign of Charles II.
^ Sainty, J. C. "Lists of appointments British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Originally published by University of London, London, 1973. Retrieved 12 March 2017.