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,
William Gage, 2nd Viscount Gage in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1790, but this time with special remainder to the heirs male of his brothers. Gage died 11 October 1791. William Gage's younger brother, Thomas Gage, was Commander-in-Chief of British forces at the beginning of the American Revolution. Thomas's son Sir William Hall Gage served as Admiral of the Fleet in 1862. Gage died childless in 1791 and was succeeded by Henry Gage, 3rd Viscount Gage, the eldest son of his brother Thomas. William Gage, 2nd Viscount Gage William Hall Gage, 2nd Viscount Gage (6 January 1717/18 – 11 October 1791) was a British