Canning, George (1730?–71), writer, was eldest of three sons of Stratford Canning, who had an estate at Garvagh, Co. Londonderry, and his wife Letitia Newburgh. It is said that his father was ferociously strict; he disapproved of a youthful love affair in which George was involved, disinherited him, and allowed him only £150 a year. The youngest son, Stratford Canning (d. 1787), was also disinherited, but prospered in London; his son was created Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe. The second son, Paul Canning, who remained in Garvagh to inherit the family estates, was father of George Canning (qv), 1st Baron Garvagh.
Canning went to London, entered the Middle Temple 23 June 1752, and was called to the English bar in 1764. He was a supporter of John Wilkes, the radical politician, and associated with prominent writers such as Charles Churchill; not surprisingly perhaps, he was unsuccessful as a lawyer, and later as a wine merchant. He published a modern version of Horace's first Satire (1762), a Translation of Anti-Lucretius (1766), and in 1767 An appeal to the public against the Critical Review, as well as Poems. He married (21 May 1768), at Marylebone church, Mary Anne Costello, who was beautiful and well connected, but without a fortune and the cause of his being disinherited. The Cannings were popular in literary society, but Canning's efforts to make a living by writing were unsuccessful, and he even planned to publish his love-letters to try to make a little money. He died in abject poverty, in the Middle Temple on 11 April 1771 on the first birthday of his only son, supposedly of a broken heart, but actually of inflammation of the bowels.
There were probably two daughters, one of whom died young. Mrs Canning had to become an actress in order to support the family, since old Stratford Canning was unrelenting; her fellow actor John Moody (qv) went to her wealthy brother-in-law Stratford Canning jun. to tell him that without family assistance young George Canning (1770–1827) was certain to die on the gallows. At the age of eight the boy was taken away from his mother and went to live with his uncle. After a good education, he entered politics; he was MP for Tralee (1802–6), as well as for several seats in England, and was foreign secretary (1822–7), one of the most distinguished holders of the office in British history. George Canning died 8 August 1827, at the height of a glittering career, after only four months as prime minister of England.