Family and Education

b. c.1666, 1st surv. s. of Sir Erasmus Philipps, 3rd Bt., M.P. Pembroke 1654, by Catherine, da. and coh. of Hon. Edward Darcy by Elizabeth, da. of Philip Stanhope, 1st Earl of Chesterfield; uncle by marriage to Sir Robert Walpole. educ. Westminster 1679; Trinity, Camb. 1682; L. Inn 1684. m. 12 Dec. 1697, Mary, da. and h. of Anthony Smith, E.I. merchant, 3s. 4da. suc. fa. 18 Jan. 1697.

Offices Held

Biography

Philipps, who owned large estates in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, was returned for Haverfordwest on his family’s interest in 1718, voting with the Administration. Poor eyesight caused him to retire from Parliament in 1722, when he wrote to his wife, 4 Jan.,

it is become painful to me to sit in the House of Commons where, for want of reading the bills and other matters that are laid before them, I am by no means master of their business and often times at a loss to know which way to give my vote.1

An active member of the societies for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts and for promoting Christian knowledge, he was also a patron of George Whitfield and a friend of John Wesley.2 In 1730 he took up the cause of the persecuted Protestants in Poland, collecting several hundred pounds for their relief among his acquaintances, including £50 from Walpole.3 He died 5 Jan. 1737, aged 70, leaving in his will a legacy for the relief of the Salzburgers and other persecuted Protestants.4

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Peter D.G. Thomas

Notes

• 1. NLW, Picton Castle mss.
• 2. T. Shankland, ‘Sir John Philipps’, Trans. Cymmrod. Soc. 1804-5, pp. 74-79.
• 3. HMC Hastings, iii. 5.
• 4. HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 376.