Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton
British noble (1735-1811)
Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (28 September 1735 – 14 March 1811), styled Earl of Euston between 1747 and 1757, was a British Whig statesman of the Georgian era. He is one of a handful of dukes who have served as prime minister.
He became prime minister in 1768 at the age of 33, leading the supporters of William Pitt, and was the youngest person to hold the office until the appointment of William Pitt the Younger 15 years later. However, he struggled to demonstrate an ability to counter increasing challenges to Britain's global dominance following the nation's victory in the Seven Years' War. He was widely attacked for allowing France to annex Corsica, and stepped down in 1770, handing over power to Lord North.
Background and education
Fitzroy was born on 9 October 1735. He was a son of Lord Augustus FitzRoy, a captain in the Royal Navy, and Elizabeth Cosby, the daughter of Colonel William Cosby, who served as a colonial Governor of New York. Lord Augustus was the third son of the 2nd Duke of Grafton and Lady Henrietta Somerset, which made FitzRoy a great-grandson of both the 1st Duke of Grafton and the Marquess of Worcester. He was notably a fourth-generation descendant of King Charles II and the 1st Duchess of Cleveland; the surname FitzRoy stems from this illegitimacy. His younger brother was the 1st Baron Southampton.
The public source identifies “Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton” as british noble (1735-1811). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Augustus, FitzRoy and Duke.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q312583. VIAF identifies the subject as 18143518. The Library of Congress control number is n87869447. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1735, 1811, 1747 and 1757.
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This entry incorporates text from “Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.