Spencer Perceval
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The Rt Hon Spencer Perceval | |
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In office October 4 1809 – May 11 1812 |
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Preceded by | The Duke of Portland |
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Succeeded by | The Earl of Liverpool |
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In office March 26 1807 – May 11 1812 |
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Preceded by | Lord Henry Petty |
Succeeded by | Nicholas Vansittart |
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Born | November 1 1762 Audley Square, London |
Died | May 11 1812 Lobby of the House of Commons |
Political party | Tory |
Spencer Perceval (November 1 1762 – May 11 1812) was a British statesman and Prime Minister. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated (shot dead).
Perceval was the seventh son of John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont by his second wife. His father, a close friend of Frederick, Prince of Wales and King George III, had served in the Cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty, but died when Perceval was ten.
Perceval that was Prime Minister when William Wilberforce passed his Bill (law) ending the slave trade.
The Orders in Council against trade which Perceval had writen in 1807 became unpopular in the winter of 1811 with Luddite riots breaking out. They were also a cause of the War of 1812 with the United States of America. Perceval was forced to have an inquiry by the House of Commons. On May 11, 1812, Perceval was on his way to attend the inquiry when he was shot through the heart in the lobby of the House of Commons by a seller called John Bellingham. Perceval's body lay in 10 Downing Street for five days before burial. Bellingham gave himself up strate away. Tried for murder, he was found guilty and hanged a week later.
Perceval is buried at St Luke's Church in Charlton, south-east London.
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