BAMPFYLDE, Charles Warwick (1753-1823), of Poltimore, Devon

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1774 - 1790
1796 - 1812

Family and Education

b. 23 Jan. 1753, 1st surv. s. of Sir Richard Warwick Bampfylde, 4th Bt.. educ. New Coll. Oxf. 1770. m. 9 Feb. 1776 Catherine, da. and coh. of Adm. Sir John Moore, 1st Bt., 2s. 1da. suc. fa. as 5th Bt. 15 July 1776.

Offices Held

Biography

Returned unopposed in 1774 and again in 1780, Bampfylde voted with Opposition in the two divisions on paying the civil list debts, 16 and 18 Apr. 1777, and next for the motion to inquire into pensions, 21 Feb. 1780. His attendance was irregular but till March 1782 all his recorded votes were with Opposition. After his election in 1780 the English Chronicle wrote:

Before he succeeded to his estate, though scarcely twenty-five years of age, he had spent nearly two-thirds of it ... Plundered by the most usurious contracts, and defrauded by every degree of rapacity and injustice, even reduced to the last extreme of necessity, Sir Charles Bampfylde has preserved the character of a fair and honourable man, and given a striking instance that the pride of an English gentleman, though it may reduce him to misfortune, will ever keep him above meanness ... it is not likely that he will now change his political principles, since he has suffered all the consequences of the follies and extravagance of youth, without discovering any inclination to be converted by the prospect of relief from political apostacy.

He voted against Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783, was classed by Robinson, March 1783, as ‘Mr. Fox’s connexion’, and voted for the East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783.

Bampfylde was returned in 1784 after a contest, and was classed as Opposition in William Adam’s list of the new Parliament; his only recorded votes were against Administration on Pitt’s Irish commercial proposals, 13 May 1785, and the Duke of Richmond’s fortifications plan, 27 Feb. 1786.

He is only known to have spoken twice before 1790: about presenting a petition against the receipts tax, 5 June 1783, and against the window tax, 10 Aug. 1784. He died 19 Apr. 1823.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes