Unlike many of his Opposition colleagues, he supported the government response to the American Revolution, stating in the House on 19 April 1774: "We ill hold the title of mother country if we are to do what America says we must do, or desist from doing what America says we must not do."[1] Encouraged by this difference in view, an annual pension of £500 (equivalent to £64,000 in 2019),[7] and a seat on the Treasury Board, he crossed the floor to become part of the Government in 1774.[2] In the election of that year, he was elected to represent Winchelsea, a rotten borough in the gift of the Treasury.[8] He would represent the seat for ten years before transferring to the neighbouring Treasury seat of Rye.[9]