Pulteney
WILLIAM, Earl of Bath, an English statesman; born in 1684. He studied at Oxford and entered Parliament where he won a brilliant reputation. At first the friend of Walpole, he became the head of a party of malcontent Whigs, the "Patriots," in 1728, and was henceforth the minister's bitterest opponent. He was Bolingbroke's chief assistant in the paper called the "Craftsman," which involved him in many political controversies. In 1731 he wrongly ascribed to Lord Hervey the authorship of a scurrilous pamphlet; a duel was the consequence, fought with swords in St. James' Park, when both combatants were slightly wounded. On the resignation of Walpole in 1741 Pulteney PUMPELLY was sworn of the privy-council, and soon afterward created Earl of Bath; and from that time his popularity was gone, His prose was effective and his verse graceful. He died in 1764.