John Jeffreys Pratt

Born in 1759 at Lincoln’s Inn Fields to a family deeply tied to the law and justice system, Pratt was The Honourable John Pratt from 1765, at the age of six, as a result of his father being made Baron Camden. In 1780, Pratt was elected Member of Parliament for Bath and obtained the position of Teller of the Exchequer the same year, a lucrative office which he kept until his death, although after 1812 he refused to receive the large income arising from it. He served as both Lord of the Admiralty and Lord of the Treasury between 1782 and 1792. In 1785, he married Frances Molesworth, with whom he had one son. In 1793, Bayham was sworn of the Privy Council. In 1794 he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl Camden, and the following year he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Pitt. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the revolutionary years 1795 to 1798 and as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies between 1804 and 1805. He was an opponent of both parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation.