BISHOPP, Sir Cecil, 6th Bt. (d.1778), of Parham, Suss.

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

Constituency

Dates

1727 - 1734
15 Mar. 1755 - 1768

Family and Education

1st s. of Sir Cecil Bishopp, 5th Bt., by Elizabeth, da. and h. of Henry Dunch of Newington, Oxon. m. 1726, Anne, da. of Hugh Boscawen, 1st Visct. Falmouth, 4s. 8da. suc. fa. 25 Oct. 1725.

Offices Held

Supt. of foundries to the Ordnance 1751-d.

Biography

Bishopp came of an old Sussex family, who had purchased Parham in 1597. Returned for Penryn unopposed in 1727 on the interest of the Boscawen family, into which he had married, he voted with the Administration on the civil list arrears in 1729, but against them on the army in 1732 and the repeal of the Septennial Act in 1734, absenting himself from the divisions on the Hessians in 1730 and the excise bill in 1733. In 1734 he unsuccessfully contested Sussex against Henry Pelham.

Sometime before 1746 Bishopp’s attitude towards the Administration changed. When in January 1746 his younger brother, James, was arrested at Pevensey as a Jacobite on trying to cross over to France,1 he wrote to Newcastle:

I am sorry for my brother’s very indiscreet behaviour. As I have not so much as exchanged a single word with him ... for above these twelve years, I am as incapable of guessing at his intentions, as of any other stranger.2

Having four sons, besides an ‘endless hoard of beauty daughters’,3 he applied in 1748 to Newcastle for the reversion of the controllership of army accounts, or failing that, a place in the revenue commission, explaining:

The reason, my Lord, for my thus importuning you is a very cogent one, a numerous family, scarce in the power of frugality to support.

On 2 Oct. 1750 he wrote again:

The last time I had the honour to be with your Grace ... you gave me leave to trouble you with a letter, in case an employment should become vacant ... I then mentioned ... superintendent of the royal brass foundries at Woolwich ... Tis a sinecure, and the salary £500 a year, and no more.

Newcastle, who wished to secure him for reasons of county politics, wrote to Henry Pelham, 3 Nov.: ‘I think, in our present circumstances it is absolutely necessary for us to engage him’. In 1751 Bishopp received his appointment, his second son being made a page to the new Prince of Wales. He subsequently became one of Newcastle’s advisers on Sussex affairs, recommending candidates for the county on three separate occasions.4 Brought in by Newcastle for Boroughbridge in 1755, he did not follow him into opposition in the next reign. He died 15 June 1778.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Suss. Arch. Colls. xlv. 81-82.
  • 2. Add. 32706, f. 106.
  • 3. Horace Walpole to Earl of Strafford, 7 June 1760.
  • 4. Add. 32716, f. 224; 32717, f. 442; 32723, ff. 93, 184; 32731, f. 92; 32938, ff. 428-9; 32917, f. 163.