George Ponsonby (5 March 1755 – 8 July 1817), was a British lawyer and Whig politician.

[citation needed] Ponsonby was Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer in 1782, afterwards taking a prominent part in the debates on the question of Roman Catholic relief, and leading the opposition to the union of the parliaments.

[2] After 1801 Ponsonby represented County Wicklow and then Tavistock in the Parliament of the United Kingdom; in 1806 to 1807 he was Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and from 1808 to 1817 he was the recognised leader of the opposition in the British House of Commons.

He proved to be a weak leader, but was unwilling to resign and so retained the leadership of the party in the House of Commons until his death.

He left an only daughter, Elizabeth, when he died in London on 8 July 1817, who went on to marry Francis Aldborough Prittie, MP, by whom she had six children.