Compton, the third son of James Spencer Compton, 3rd Earl of Northampton, entered the Commons for the first time in 1698. A Whig, he became Speaker of the House of Commons in 1715 a post in which he served until 1727, and was made a Privy Councillor in 1716. In 1728 he was raised to the peerage as Lord Wilmington, and in 1730 he entered the government of Sir Robert Walpole as Lord Privy Seal. Later that year he was made Earl of Wilmington and Viscount Pevensey, and became Lord President of the Council, a position in which he continued to serve until 1742, when he succeeded Walpole at the Treasury, in an administration effectively headed by Lord Carteret. Wilmington died the next year, and was succeeded as First Lord of the Treasury by Henry Pelham.
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|width="30%" align="center"|Preceded by:
New Creation
|width="40%" align="center"|Earl of Wilmington
|width="30%" align="center"|Followed by:
Extinct
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