Earl of Chatham Earl of Chatham Earl of Chatham, in the County of Kent, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1766 for William Pitt the Elder on his appointment as Lord Privy Seal, along with the subsidiary title Viscount Pitt, of Burton Pynsent in the County of Somerset, also in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first Earl's wife, the former Lady Hester Grenville, daughter of the 1st Countess Temple, had earlier been created Baroness Chatham, of Chatham in the County of Kent, also in the Peerage of Great Britain, in 1761, as at that stage
John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham was back in Britain and in 1782 obtained a captaincy in the London-based 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards. Although he was appointed colonel in October 1793 and major-general in February 1795, Chatham does not appear to have undertaken any military duties for nearly fifteen years after the end of the War of American Independence in 1783. For much of the 1780s and 1790s Chatham focused on a political career. His brother, William Pitt the Younger, became prime minister in December 1783, and in July 1788 offered Chatham the cabinet post of First Lord of the Admiralty. 'I have had my