Name George Hay Died 1778 | Role Member of Parliament | |
Sir George Hay (25 January 1715 – 6 October 1778) was a British judge and Member of Parliament (MP) who ultimately 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.
He was Chancellor of the Diocese of Worcester 1751-64; King's Advocate General from 1755-64 (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.
In 1754, he was returned as one of the two MPs 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.
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.