The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Canterbury, Right Hon. John Henry Thomas Manners Sutton, 3rd Viscount
Canterbury, Right Hon. John Henry Thomas Manners Sutton, 3rd Viscount, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., was born on May 27th, 1814. His lordship was the second son of Charles, 1st Viscount Canterbury, Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 to 1834, by Lucy Maria Charlotte, eldest daughter of John Denison, of Ossington, Nottinghamshire, and married on July 15th, 1838, Georgiana, youngest daughter of Charles Tompson, of Witchingham Hall, Norfolk. Lord Canterbury was Under Secretary for the Home Department from 1841 to 1846, Lieut.-Governor of New Brunswick from 1854 to 1861, and Governor of Trinidad from Sept. 1864 to April 1866, when he was appointed to succeed Sir Charles Darling as Governor of Victoria. He assumed office in August 1866, under circumstances of unusual difficulty. His predecessor's concurrence in the measures taken by the McCulloch Ministry to establish the absolute supremacy of the Legislative Assembly in matters of finance, had endeared him to the people as much as it embroiled him with the imperial authorities. Coming as the representative of the latter, Lord Canterbury's action was certain to be subjected to severe scrutiny; and it is to his credit that, whilst he loyally adhered to his instructions, and was thus placed in opposition to the popular wishes in a period of extreme excitement, he managed to emerge from the crisis to the satisfaction of the Home authorities, and without incurring any marked odium in the colony over which he presided as the representative of the Queen. The Duke of Edinburgh visited Victoria during his term of office, and for the nonce party strife was hushed. He succeeded his brother, the 2nd Viscount, in Nov. 1869, and left Victoria in March 1873 for England, where he died on June 24th, 1877.