Dudley North (politician, born 1684)

He was a cousin of Lord North, the British prime minister who later lost the American War of Independence.

North was the eldest and only surviving son of Sir Dudley North of Camden Place, Maiden Lane, London and his wife Anne Cann, daughter of Sir Robert Cann, 1st Baronet of Compton Greenfield, Gloucestershire.

His father was well known as a merchant, economist, and Tory politician and had purchased the Glemham estate shortly before his death in 1691.

North was educated privately at Kensington, with ‘Mr Agier’; and was admitted at St. John’s College, Cambridge on 12 May 1701.

North stood for Parliament at Thetford at the 1708 British general election with Sir Thomas Hanmer, 4th Baronet to whom he was related, but was unsuccessful.

Lord North, the Prime Minister of Great Britain who led the American War of Independence, was his first cousin, being descended from his uncle, Lord Chancellor Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford, of Wroxton Abbey.