Past Prime Ministers
NicknameJack Boot
Born 25 May 1713, Parliament Sq Edinburgh
Died 10 March 1792, South Audley St, London
Dates in office 27 May 1762 - 9 April 1763
Political party Tory
Major acts
Cider Tax 1763 - imposition of a 4 shillings per hogshead on cider to raise revenue to pay for the Seven Years’ War
John Stuart 3rd Earl of Bute
1762 - 1763
During a debate on the cider tax: “A noble duke knows the difficulty to choose proper taxes.”
Bute succeeded the Duke of Newcastle as Prime Minister, not through political expertise but through personal connections. He had spent just three years in Parliament before his time as PM, and this was more than 20 years earlier. He is said to have been ‘tall, slim and very handsome’.
In the following two decades he had befriended and become tutor to the young Prince George. Upon George’s accession as King George III, Bute was made Secretary of State and then Prime Minister.
Only 11 months in office, Bute nevertheless ended both the predominance of the Whigs and the Seven Years War.
Unpopular with the English
Despite bringing peace, Bute proved deeply unpopular in England for reasons including his nationality (many in England were still distrustful of the Scots after the Jacobite Rising of 1745 – 6). This led to written, verbal and physical attacks being made upon him and he resigned in 1763.
He died in 1792, shortly after falling 28 feet down some cliffs near his home, and was buried, appropriately, on the Isle of Bute in Scotland.