Sir George Hay (25 January 1715 – 6 October 1778) was a British judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1754 and 1778. He committed suicide.

The son of John Hay, a Church of England clergyman who was Rector of St Stephen's, Coleman Street, London, he was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and St John's College, Oxford.

George Hay (politician)

He was Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester 1751–64; King's Advocate General from 1755 to 1764 (with interval in 1756) and Vicar General to the Archbishop of Canterbury for the same period; He was Dean of Arches 1764–1778 and also Judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Chancellor of the Diocese of Lichfield for the same period. In 1773, the year he was knighted, he was appointed Judge of the High Court of Admiralty.

George Hay (politician)

In 1754, he was returned as Member of Parliament for Stockbridge, but left the House of Commons in 1756 to take up the post of Commissioner of the Admiralty. He returned to Parliament in July 1757 for Calne in Wiltshire, at the request of Pitt the Elder. At the 1761 election, he was returned as MP for Sandwich in Kent, holding that seat until the next election, in 1768, when he stood unsuccessfully for Oxford University. Later that year, through a by-election, he became MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, holding the seat until his death.

George Hay (politician)

In May 1778, he became ill and was known to be 'lunatic' by August. Arrangements to terminate his legal offices were being made, when in October he escaped from his asylum and drowned himself at the age of 63. He never married.

References

1715 births

1778 deaths

Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Newcastle-under-Lyme

British MPs 1754–1761

British MPs 1761–1768

British MPs 1768–1774

British MPs 1774–1780

People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood

Alumni of St John's College, Oxford

English lawyers

Members of Doctors' Commons

Lords of the Admiralty

Suicides by drowning in England

British politicians who committed suicide