ABSTRACT
Wilmington, Walpole’s successor as prime minister, has been regarded as George II’s favourite nonentity. Though there is some truth in this, he was a more complex and significant figure than has been realized. Compton, who had been a friend of Walpole in the Queen’s reign, had a full share in the Whig monopoly of office which followed the Hanoverian succession. In February 1742, after the fall of Walpole, Wilmington joined the Duke of Argyll against Newcastle, Hardwicke, William Pulteney and Lord Carteret in pressing for a broadly based coalition, to include some Tories and to implement the 'Country' measures which had been demanded by opposition Whigs and Tories alike. Wilmington was asked to become First Lord of the Treasury on the understanding that he would have his burden lightened by working with Samuel Sandys, Pulteney's second-in-command, as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
