Born in 1730, he was the only surviving son of the 1^st Marquess of Rockingham. He succeeded to his father’s title in 1750 and with it a position in the House of Lords. He naturally tending to the beliefs of the Whigs and in 1751 he became a Lord of the Bedchamber. He was disturbed by the growing power of the Tories and their backing by King George III. In 1762 he disagreed so strongly with the Treaty of Paris that he resigned over the issue. Rockingham had come along at at time when the older generation of Whigs were

 retireing or leaving Parliamnet and the younger generation were to inexperienced to take up the reins of power. He himself was not an outgoing personality and it took a power vacuum and general encouragement from the Whigs, for him to step up and take a leaderhip role. This group became known as the Rockinghamite Whigs. In 1765 Cumberland assembled a ministry led by Rockingham as First Lord of the Tresurey.  

This government tried to appeal to the people by the repeal of unpopular bills such as the Cider Excise and the Stamp Act. Once again, his relationship with the King intervined and a quarrel between them led to a quarrel and Rockingham’s dismissal in 1766. He took with him his hard core followers who opposed the Grafton and North Ministries with vigor.

By 1780, with the war in America going badly, attempts were made to bring him into a reconstruction ministry but his two conditions of acceptance, 1) recognition of American Independence, and 2) Economic Reforms, were not acceptable to the government led by North.

In 1782, with a coalition of his followers and the recently deceased William Pitt’s followers, Rockingham was brought back into government in the Treasurey. He acted quickly to give Ireland Legislative Independence when he repealed the 1720 Declaratory Act. He initiated the first steps towards a negotiated end of the war with America and worked to convince the Irish Parliament to repeal Poyning’s Law.

In sudden death in July of 1782 ended his second administration and a promising start towards an active resolution of many of the problems pressing on Great Britain at the time.