AUCKLAND, WILLIAM EDEN, 1ST BARON, cr. English statesman, was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the bar in 1768. He was under secretary of State (1772), commissioner of the board of trade (1776), commissioner to North America in connexion with the dispute with the American colonists (1778), and chief secretary for Ireland . He resigned the chief-secretaryship in 1782, but next year took office as vice treasurer of Ireland under the coalition ministry, resigning with the Government in December. He opposed strongly Pitt's propositions for free trade between England and Ireland in 1785, but took office with Pitt as a member of the committee on trade and plantations, and negotiated in 1786 and 1787 Pitt's important commercial treaty with France, and agreements concerning the East India companies and Holland. In 1788 he was sent as ambassador to Spain. The same year he was sent on a mission to Holland, and represented English interests there with great zeal and prudence during the critical years of 1790 to 1793, obtaining the assistance of the Dutch fleet in 1790 on the menace of a war with Spain, signing the convention relating to the Netherlands the same year, and in 1793 attending the congress at Antwerp. He did not again hold office until 1798, when he joined Pitt's Government as joint postmaster general. He severely criticized Pitt's resignation in 18o1, from which he had endeavoured to dissuade him, and re tained office under Addington. This terminated his friendship with Pitt, who excluded him from his Administration in 2804 though he increased his pension. Auckland was included in Granville's ministry of "All the Talents" as president of the board of trade in 1806. He held the appointments of auditor and director of Greenwich hospital, recorder of Grantham, and chan cellor of the Marischal College in Aberdeen. He died on May 28 1814.
He had married in 1776 Eleanor, sister of the first Lord Minto, and had a large family. Emily Eden the novelist, was one of his daughters. On the death of his son George, 2nd baron and earl of Auckland (q.v.), the barony passed to the 1st baron's younger son Robert John bishop of Bath and Wells, from whom the later barons were descended, and who was also the father of Sir Ashley Eden lieutenant governor of Bengal.
Lord Auckland's Journal and Correspondence (published 1861-62) throws much light on the political history of the time.