Family and Education

b. 19 Sept. 1677,1 1st surv. s. of Sir Thomas Broughton, 2nd Bt., by Rhoda, da. of John Amcotts of Aisthorpe, Lincs. educ. Kensington; Christ’s, Camb. 1695; M. Temple 1698. m. 10 Feb. 1710, Elizabeth, da. of Sir Thomas Delves, 4th Bt., of Doddington, Salop, 2s. 2da. suc. fa. 1710.

Offices Held

Biography

Of an ancient Staffordshire family, Broughton, ‘a gentleman of known affection to the present establishment in church and state’,2 was returned as a Whig on petition in 1715. He voted with the Administration, except on the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts in 1719, when he wrote to Craggs:

I shall content myself with acquainting you that so violent is the prejudice of people here against the bill that should I venture (I speak as to my own particular only) to appear in favour of it, I must from that time disclaim all hopes of ever serving his Majesty in a parliamentary station again, in this county at least. A man here must be very sanguine to think any atonement could ever be made for a crime of so deep a dye. This being then the case, and, as I think I may without too much flattering myself say, that in the opinion of others than myself I have no unfair prospect in a succeeding Parliament of being chose, perhaps for this county as well as the corporation I now serve for, so I hope this once absenting myself, and for, as they call it, a prudential reason only, will neither lay me under the imputation of being or wavering or whimsical. But should the party, as you seem to apprehend, attempt any further to obstruct the just measures of the Government, be assured ... no consideration at all shall, upon the least intimation, prevent my attendance, desiring nothing more than the strengthening his Majesty’s hands in anything he shall with the advice of Parliament, think fit to undertake. My heart is alone with the bill, and nobody wishes it better success. But at the same time, my appearing for it must utterly clash with and quite blow up an interest, which, at no light expense, for above this 12 years, I have been bringing to bear in this wretched county. This one failure, if it will deserve so hard a name, I have confidence will be overlooked.3

At the end of the year, he voted with the Government on the peerage bill. Re-elected unopposed in 1722, he died 12 Sept. 1724.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Sir Delves L. Broughton, Recs. of an Old Cheshire Fam. 71.
• 2. Pol. State, xxviii. 315.
• 3. Stowe mss 246, f. 162.