Viscount Sidmouth

[2] In May 1804, King George III intended to confer the titles of Earl of Banbury, Viscount Wallingford and Baron Reading on Addington (an earldom was the customary retirement honour for a former prime minister).

However, Addington refused the honour and chose to remain in the House of Commons until 1805, when he joined William Pitt the Younger's government as Lord President of the Council with the lesser title of Viscount Sidmouth.

The current holder of the title is the latter's great-great-grandson, the eighth viscount, who succeeded his father in 2005.

Henry Unwin Addington, nephew of the first viscount, was a diplomat and civil servant.

The family seat now is Highway Manor (near Calne, Wiltshire) which was inherited in 1936.

Arms of Addington (Viscount Sidmouth): Per pale ermine and ermines, a chevron charged with five lozenges counter-changed between three fleurs-de-lys or [ 1 ]
Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, by John Singleton Copley