The Death of the Earl of Chatham The Death of the Earl of Chatham The Death of the Earl of Chatham is the title of a 1781 oil-on-canvas painting by Boston-born American artist John Singleton Copley. It depicts the collapse of William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham on 7 April 1778, during a debate in the House of Lords on the American War of Independence. Chatham is surrounded by peers of the realm, and the painting contains fifty-five portraits. Lord Chatham was the architect of the British victory in the Seven Years' War (1757–1763), in which Britain won supremacy in America. Although sympathetic to American grievances and
Earl of Bellomont died without surviving male issue in 1766. The late Earl was succeeded in the barony of Coote by his first cousin once removed, Charles Coote, who became the fifth Baron. Charles was the son of Charles Coote (1695–1750), Member of Parliament for County Cavan, son of the Honourable Thomas Coote, a Justice of the Court of King's Bench (Ireland), younger son of the first Baron. On 4 September 1767 the earldom of Bellomont was created for the third time when Charles was made Earl of Bellomont (although the title was probably erroneously spelled "Bell"a"mont" in the letters patent). On 18