Charles Brett was a British Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

.

Coming from a naval family, Brett was at first a naval officer, and in 1755 was in charge of Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

 dockyard. After inheriting property on his marriage to Elizabeth Hooker, granddaughter and heir of Sir William Hooker in 1753, he retired from the navy and eventually went into politics.

A follower of Lord Howe

Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe

Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe KG was a British naval officer, notable in particular for his service during the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars. He was the brother of William Howe and George Howe.Howe joined the navy at the age of thirteen and served...

, he was Paymaster of the Navy from 1766 to 1770, and he entered Parliament in 1768 as member for Lostwithiel

Lostwithiel (UK Parliament constituency)

Lostwithiel was a rotten borough in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1304 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...

. He resigned that seat in 1776, being immediately returned instead as the government-sponsored MP for Sandwich

Sandwich (UK Parliament constituency)

Sandwich was a parliamentary constituency in Kent, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1366 until 1885, when it was disfranchised for corruption.-History:...

, a constituency with a strong naval connection, but from 1777 he voted consistently with the opposition, and in 1780 lost his seat when defeated by two government-backed candidates.

After the fall of Lord North's government in 1782, Brett was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty, and returned to the Commons as the Rockingham

Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham

Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, KG, PC , styled The Hon. Charles Watson-Wentworth before 1733, Viscount Higham between 1733 and 1746, Earl of Malton between 1746 and 1750 and The Earl Malton in 1750, was a British Whig statesman, most notable for his two terms as Prime...

 government's candidate at Dartmouth

Dartmouth (UK Parliament constituency)

Dartmouth, also at some times called Clifton, Dartmouth and Hardness, was a parliamentary borough in Devon which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in 1298 and to the Commons of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom from 1351 until 1832, and then one member from...

 (another constituency with strong links with the navy). He was a Lord of the Admiralty from April 1782 to April 1783, leaving office on the fall of Shelburne's

William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne

William Petty-FitzMaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, KG, PC , known as The Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history, was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first Home Secretary in 1782 and then Prime Minister 1782–1783 during the final...

 administration, and once again under William Pitt the Younger

William Pitt the Younger

William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...

from December 1783 until 1788.