William Stuart (politician, 1798)

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William Stuart ( October 31, 1798 - July 7, 1874 ) was a British politician who was elected three times to the House of Commons .

Origin and education

William Stuart came from an old sidelines of the Stuart family . He was the eldest son of William Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh, and his wife Sophia Penn . He spent much of his childhood in Armagh, Ireland, and studied at St John's College , Cambridge in 1815 .

Protégé of his father

Stuart's father, the Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, obtained prior to the British General Election in 1818, in return for agreeing to an electoral agreement in Armagh, that his son William would be elected to the House of Commons or move up in 1820. In fact, William, who had just come of age, was elected MP in the 1820 general election. His father instructed him expressly to represent the interests of the Church of England, and thus the government , as an MP from Armagh . He should put party politics and personal interests aside. In fact, Stuart mostly voted as a loyal supporter of the government, for example against laws on Catholic emancipation . In 1826 he advocated the abolition of slavery . Probably through the mediation of his father, Stuart held the office of registrar of the probate court of Ireland together with Sir John Robinson , the nephew of the former Archbishop of Armagh Richard Robinson , from 1821 at the latest . This office was a sinecure , the duties of which Stuart had deputies done. After Robinson's death in 1832, Stuart became the only incumbent. He had annual revenues of over £ 1000 from this office until it was abolished in 1857.

Further political activity

After his father's death in 1822, Stuart inherited his London home and land in Sutton Cheney near Market Bosworth . According to his father's will, he was to receive £ 20,000 of his father's fortune after the death of his mother, who did not die until 1853. In 1825, Stuart bought Tempsford Hall and land in Bedfordshire from the Payne family for £ 64,000 . Apparently he was trying to get the support of his cousin, the 2nd Marquess of Bute , for the next General Election in 1826 to run for Bedfordshire as a candidate for the Conservative Party . However, Bute already supported Sir Robert Inglis ' candidacy , which was unsuccessful. With this, Stuart left the House of Commons in 1826. Bute made him the official recorder of Banbury in 1828 . In the general election in August 1830, Stuart was able to run successfully as a candidate for the Conservative Party for Bedfordshire, after the previous MP Thomas Macqueen had renounced a new candidacy. In the House of Commons, Stuart was an admirer of Prime Minister Wellington , although he did not want to commit himself to party politics. He campaigned for the abolition of the Corn Laws and further for the abolition of slavery, but was one of the opponents of an electoral reform . In 1831 he passed several laws by the new Prime Minister Lord Gray . Before the general election in 1831, he promised to advocate only minor reforms in electoral law. Although he had spent about £ 4,000 on the campaign, he lost the election to Peter Payne in May . Stuart remained politically active in Bedfordshire. He became captain of the militia and ran again in the general election in December 1832 as a candidate for the Conservative Party for Bedfordshire. He was elected MP in that election but had spent over £ 11,000 in the campaign. So he went into debt with the Marquess of Bute and took out a £ 40,000 mortgage on his Tempsford estate. Due to his poor health, he did not run again after the House of Commons was dissolved in December 1834. From 1846 to 1847 he served as Sheriff of Bedfordshire.

Aldenham Abbey (also called Wall Hall ), the country home of William Stuart

Stuart's younger brother Henry and eldest son William were also later elected MPs for Bedfordshire. Stuart, however, retired to his country estate Aldenham Abbey in Hertfordshire , while he bequeathed Tempsford to his eldest son William.

William Stuart was one of the founders of the Freemason Lodge Stuart Lodge in Kempston in 1847, along with his brother Henry, and became its first Master of the Chair .

Family and offspring

On August 8, 1821, Stuart had married Henrietta Pole , a daughter of Sir Charles Pole and his wife Henrietta Goddard . His father-in-law gave them £ 40,000 in trust, on top of which he promised Stuart an annual pension of £ 1,000, while his wife received an additional £ 2,000 annually from her father. After Charles Pole's death, his wife inherited his country estate, Aldenham Abbey. With her he had three sons and three daughters, including:

  • Louisa Pole Stuart († 1858) ∞ Oliver Ridley
  • Mary Pole Stuart (1823-1852) ∞ Jonathan Rashleigh
  • William Stuart (1825-1893)
  • Charles Pole Stuart (1826-1896)

After the death of his wife in 1853, he married Georgina Walker , a daughter Frederick Walker and his wife Annabelle Cane, on August 31, 1854 . The marriage remained childless. In his will, he left £ 5,000 to his second wife, who later married the 9th Earl of Seafield , while leaving almost all of his property to his eldest son, William.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stuart Lodge No. 540: Craft History. Retrieved November 23, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Stuart, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, Member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1798
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 1874