SAMBROOKE (afterwards VANACKER SAMBROOKE), Samuel (c.1677-1714), of Chancery Lane, London

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1 Feb. 1704 - 1705
1708 - 1710

Family and Education

b. c.1677, 1st s. of Sir Jeremy Sambrooke, Haberdasher, of St. Michael Bassishaw and Bush Hill Park, alderman of London 1687, dep.-gov. E. I. Co. 1683–4 and sub-gov. R. African Co. 1689, by Judith, da. of Nicholas Vanacker, merchant, of St. Dionis, London and Erith, Kent.  m. 21 Jan. 1701 (with £6,000), Elizabeth (d. 1775), da. of Sir Nathan Wright, of Caldecote, Warws., ld. keeper 1700–5, 1s. 3da.  suc. fa. 1705; uncle Sir John Vanacker, 2nd Bt., by spec. rem. as 3rd Bt. Mar. 1711 and assumed additional name of Vanacker.1

Offices Held

Biography

The heir to a rich merchant, who was to leave him a fortune of at least £61,000 together with extensive property in London, Sambrooke contested the venal borough of Bramber at a by-election in 1704, and was returned with help from Thomas Owen*. A petition accusing him of bribery was rejected by the Commons. He shared his father’s Tory sympathies but was described as ‘doubtful’ in a forecast of 30 Oct. 1704 for the Tack, and, having been lobbied by his father-in-law on Robert Harley’s* behalf, did not vote for it on 28 Nov. Defeated at Bramber in 1705, he turned to Great Bedwyn in 1708 and again sought to make an interest by financial means. In an unusual four-cornered election, he secured the second seat. Again he survived allegations of bribery. Lord Sunderland (Charles, Lord Spencer*) reckoned this election result a ‘loss’ for the Whigs, and a list of early 1708 with the returns added classified Sambrooke as a Tory. On 7 Dec. 1708 he told for a Tory motion that the provisions against placemen in the Regency Act should be construed as applying to the navy commissioners. He did not stand again, but was spoken of in September 1714 as intending to recommend a candidate to the Bedwyn voters for the next election, the unlikely beneficiary of this patronage being Richard Steele*.2

Sambrooke died at his house in Chancery Lane on 27 Dec. 1714, and was buried at Edmonton. His son Sir Jeremy Vanacker Sambrooke, 4th Bt., represented Bedford 1731–40.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

  • 1. Top. and Gen. iii. 262-3; St. Michael Bassishaw (Harl. Soc. Reg. lxxiii), 30; London Mar. Lic. ed. Foster, 1181; J. R. Woodhead, Rulers of London (London and Mdx. Arch. Soc.), 143–4; Clutterbuck, Herts. i. 453; Cal. Treas. Bks. xxv. 305; Beds. RO, C1598, mar. settlement.
  • 2. Woodhead, 143–4; PCC 199 Fagg; Bull. IHR. xxxiv. 96; Wilts. RO, Ailesbury mss 1300/1339, 1342–4, Charles Becher to Ld. Bruce (Charles*), 11, 25, 26, 27 Apr. 1708; HMC 15th Rep. VII, 218.
  • 3. Le Neve, Mon. Angl. 1700–15, p. 290.