William Pitt collection

Born in London on 15 November 1708, "the elder Pitt," as William Pitt was known, was the son of Robert Pitt and Lady Harriet Villiers. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, and in 1735 entered parliament for Old Sarum, one of the boroughs controlled by his brother. He became secretary of state in 1756, where he was determined to continue and increase military action against France during the Seven Years War. Opposition from King George II forced him to resign a year later, but public support brought him back only a few months later. He was forced to resign again in 1761, when the cabinet refused to support a war with Spain. In 1766 he established a new ministry, but his health prevented him from serving any real function, and he resigned in 1768. Pitt died on 11 May 1778.

William Pitt was born in Kent, England on 28 May 1759, son of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and Lady Hester Grenville. He was educated at home as a child, and at age fourteen attended Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. In 1780, he was called to the bar, and joined the western assize circuit. He failed to win a parliamentary seat at Cambridge in 1780, but in 1781 he was elected to a seat for Appleby in Westmorland. In July of 1782, he became Chancellor of the Exchequer. He became the leader of the Commons in the ministry of William Petty, Earl of Shelburne, defeating Charles James Fox, with whom he began a lifelong rivalry. After the failure of the ministries of Shelburne and his successor, William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, Duke of Portland, Pitt became Britain's youngest Prime Minister at the age of twenty-four. His seventeen-year term saw the reduction of the national debt, the union of England with Ireland, and the defeat of the invading French at Trafalgar. He died heavily in debt in 1806.