George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe

Who was George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe?

George Bubb Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe PC was an English politician and nobleman.

Christened simply George Bubb, he acquired the surname Dodington around the time his uncle George Dodington died in 1720 and left him his estate. Enormously rich, he became a friend of Frederick, Prince of Wales, who took advantage of their acquaintance to obtain loans that helped clear his debts, and, on being thrown out of St James's Palace by his father, King George II, moved into a London house belonging to Dodington. Dodington is said to have been involved in a spy-ring, collecting valuable information about Jacobite activities. In 1761, following the accession of Frederick's son to the throne as George III, he was created Baron Melcombe.

His diary, published posthumously in 1784 by Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, is a valuable historical source.

He is depicted in William Hogarth's 1761 engraving Five Orders of Periwigs.