Villiers was returned at Tamworth on Lord Weymouth’s interest in succession to his uncle, Thomas Villiers. He may have been abroad at the time: Gibbon met him at Lausanne in November 1756, and found him a ‘good, sensible, modest young man’.
He was a great friend of the Duke of Grafton, who in the autumn of 1762 was active in opposing Bute’s Administration. Yet the court believed they could win over Villiers, and in November he was offered the place of comptroller of the Household. ‘Lord Villiers’, Fox wrote to Bute on 18 Nov.,
Villiers was one of the ‘zealous young men’ who pressed upon Newcastle the need for vigorous opposition and for collaboration with Pitt. He was among the founders of Wildman’s Club, appears in every minority list 1763-5, and was classed by Newcastle as a ‘sure friend’. At the meeting at Claremont on 30 June 1765 he disapproved of taking office without Pitt, yet accepted a place—probably because Grafton did so. Weymouth, who adhered to the old Administration, refused to re-elect him at Tamworth and he was returned by Newcastle for Aldborough. Naturally he supported the Chatham and Grafton Administrations; and in 1768 was returned for Dover on the Government interest.
As a peer he continued to follow Grafton, supported the court until the outbreak of the American war, and in 1777 was dismissed for opposition. He voted for Fox’s East India bill, and, although in office, against Pitt over the Regency.
He died 22 Aug. 1805.