BATHURST, Hon. Benjamin (1711-67), of Siddington, nr. Cirencester, Glos.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1734 - 1741
1754 - 1761

Family and Education

b. 12 Aug. 1711, 1st s. of Allen Bathurst, M.P., 1st Earl Bathurst, by Catherine, da. and coh. of Sir Peter Apsley of Apsley, Suss.; bro. of Hon. Henry and nephew of Peter and Benjamin Bathurst. educ. Balliol, Oxf. 1725, m. 26 Nov. 1732, Lady Elizabeth Bruce, da. of Charles, 3rd Earl of Ailesbury, s.p.

Offices Held

Out-ranger, Windsor forest May 1763-July 1765.

Biography

When Benjamin Bathurst was returned for Gloucestershire on the Tory interest in 1734, the first of the family to represent the county, his father Lord Bathurst was ‘very proud of our victory’.1 He voted consistently with the Opposition. In February 1741 he was one of the Tories who withdrew on the motion for Walpole’s removal, which his father supported in the Lords.2 He did not stand at the next two general elections.

In August 1753 he offered himself as a candidate for Cirencester at the impending general election, ‘standing entirely upon my own interest, as a neighbouring gentleman, independently of any other person’,3 i.e. of Lord Bathurst, who renominated his younger son, Henry, dissociating himself from Benjamin’s candidature. In December he joined with a Whig candidate, John Dawnay, brother of Lord Downe, another neighbouring landowner. On this Henry and two other candidates, John Coxe and Thomas Master, withdrew, leaving Benjamin and Dawnay to be returned unopposed.4 He died v.p. 23 Jan. 1767.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: A. N. Newman

Notes

  • 1. Wentworth Pprs., 507.
  • 2. HMC Egmont Diary, iii. 192.
  • 3. The Cirencester Contest (1753), pp. 10-11, Gloucester City Lib.
  • 4. Add. 32733, f. 610.