Family and Education

b. c.1678, 1st s. of. William Longueville, barrister, of Inner Temple by Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Sir Thomas Peyton, 2nd Bt., of Knowlton, Kent. educ. Clare, Camb. 1695; I. Temple 1693, called 1702, bencher 1728. unm. suc. fa. 1721.

Offices Held

Auditor to Queen Caroline ?1727-37, auditor to Princesses Amelia and Caroline 1738.

Biography

Charles Longueville was grandson of Sir Thomas Longueville of Bradwell, Bucks., who had been forced to sell the family estates in 1650 as a result of the Civil War.1 His father, William, an eminent lawyer, became ‘standing chamber counsel’2 to Thomas Bruce, and Earl of Ailesbury, and his family. Returned as a Tory in 1715, he voted against the Government in all recorded divisions. In 1721 the report of the secret committee of enquiry into the South Sea bubble disclosed that he was one of the Members who had accepted stock from the Company without paying for it.3 In the next Parliament he sat for Great Bedwyn on the Bruce interest. At George II’s accession he obtained a court place, thereafter supporting Walpole’s Administration. He died 22 or 25 Aug. 1750.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

• 1. VCH Bucks. iv. 286.
• 2. Mem. of Thomas Bruce, 2nd Earl of Ailesbury (Roxburgh Club), 408, 615.
• 3. CJ, xix. 570.