Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool

He was born in Oxfordshire, the eldest son of Colonel Charles Jenkinson (1693–1750) and Amarantha (daughter of Wolfran Cornewall). The earl was the grandson of Sir Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Baronet, of Walcot, Oxfordshire. The Jenkinson family was descended from Anthony Jenkinson (d. 1611), who was a sea-captain, merchant, and traveller and the first known Englishman to penetrate into Central Asia. He was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1752.

In 1761, Liverpool entered parliament as member for Cockermouth and was made Under-Secretary of State by Lord Bute. He won the favour of George III, and when Bute retired Jenkinson became the leader of the "King's Friends" in the House of Commons. In 1763, George Grenville appointed him joint Secretary to the Treasury.

In 1766,after a short retirement, he became a Lord of the Admiralty and then a Lord of the Treasury in the Grafton administration. In 1772, Jenkinson became a Privy Councillor and Vice Treasurer of Ireland, and in 1775 he purchased the lucrative sinecure of Clerk of the Pells in Ireland and became Master of the Mint.

From 1778 until the close of Lord North's ministry in 1782 he was Secretary at War. From 1786 to 1803, he was President of the Board of Trade and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and he was popularly regarded as enjoying the confidence of the king to a special degree.

In 1786 he was created Baron Hawkesbury, of Hawkesbury in the County of Gloucester, and ten years later, Earl of Liverpool. He also succeeded as 7th Baronet of Walcot in 1790. He lived in Addiscombe, Surrey and Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire. He died in London on 17 December 1808.

Liverpool was twice married. He married firstly Amelia, daughter of William Watts, governor of Fort William, Bengal, in 1769. She died in July 1770, only a month after the birth of her only child, Robert.

Liverpool married secondly Catherine, daughter of Sir Cecil Bishopp, 6th Baronet, and widow of Sir Charles Cope, 2nd Baronet, on 22 June 1782 at her house in Hertford Street, London. They had one son, Charles, and one daughter.

Upon Lord Liverpool's death, he was succeeded by his only son from his first marriage, Robert, who became a prominent politician and eventually Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Countess of Liverpool died in October 1827, aged 82.

Liverpool wrote several political works but except for his Treatise on the Coins of the Realm (1805) these are, according to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, "without striking merits".

The Hawkesbury River in New South Wales, Australia and Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada were named after Jenkinson shortly after he was created Baron Hawkesbury.