William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne fall. The king and the Duke of Wellington urged him to stay on as prime minister. After Norton failed in court, Melbourne was vindicated, but he did stop seeing Norton. Nonetheless, as historian Boyd Hilton concludes, "it is irrefutable that Melbourne's personal life was problematic. Spanking sessions with aristocratic ladies were harmless, not so the whippings administered to orphan girls taken into his household as objects of charity." Melbourne was Prime Minister when Queen Victoria came to the throne (June 1837). Barely eighteen, she was only just breaking free from the domineering influence of her mother, the Duchess of Kent,
Thomas Noel, 2nd Viscount Wentworth Thomas Noel, 2nd Viscount Wentworth Thomas Noel, 2nd Viscount Wentworth (18 November 1745 – 17 April 1815) was a British politician who succeeded to a peerage before he could take his seat in the House of Commons, having just been elected in 1774. Wentworth was the only son of the Edward Noel, 1st Viscount Wentworth and his wife, Judith Lamb, daughter of William Lamb of Wellesborough, Leicestershire. He was educated at Eton and, having matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford on 4 November 1763, was awarded MA on 29 April 1766. At the 1774 general election, Noel successfully contested Leicestershire and