page_title: George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville
section_title: Later life
hierarchical_section_title: George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville / Later life
caption_attribution_description: English: Stoneland Lodge, Withyham, Sussex. The home of George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville. Water colour painted by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm in 1783.
context_page_description: George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, PC, styled The Honourable George Sackville until 1720, Lord George Sackville from 1720 to 1770 and Lord George Germain from 1770 to 1782, was a British soldier and politician who was Secretary of State for America in Lord North's cabinet during the American War of Independence.
  His ministry received much of the blame for Britain's loss of thirteen American colonies. His issuance of detailed instructions in military matters, coupled with his failure to understand either the geography of the colonies or the determination of the colonists, may justify this conclusion. He had two careers. His military career had distinction, but ended with a court martial. Sackville served in the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, including at the decisive Battle of Minden. His political career ended with the fall of the North government in March 1782.
context_section_description: The controversy over Lord Sackville's handling of the war continued. Some members were opposed to his taking a seat in the House of Lords, an almost unprecedented incident. In spite of this he was admitted to the Lords, where he was staunchly defended by Lord Thurlow, and his declining health soon made the issue irrelevant. He retired to his country home at Stoneland Lodge and died there in 1785. He maintained to his dying day that he had not been a coward at Minden. Following his death, a defence of Sackville's reputation, The character of the late Viscount Sackville, was written by Richard Cumberland.
  The Drayton House estate passed to his son Charles, who later became the 5th (and last) Duke of Dorset. The Stoneland estate (or Buckhurst Park as it came to be known) passed via the wife of the late 3rd Duke of Dorset to her daughter Countess de la Warr on the Dowager Duchess's death in 1825.
caption: Stoneland Lodge, Sussex
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