GUISE, Sir William, 5th Bt. (1737-83), of Elmore and Rendcombe, Glos.

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

6 Aug. 1770 - 6 Apr. 1783

Family and Education

bap. 26 July1 or 19 Aug.2 1737, o. surv. s. of Sir John Guise, 4th Bt., by Jane, da. of John Saunders of Mongewell, Oxon. educ. Queen’s Oxf. 1754; L. Inn 1754; Grand Tour (Italy) 1763-5. unm. suc. fa. 1769.

Offices Held

Biography

Gibbon met Guise at Lausanne in 1763, and found him ‘a very sensible well-bred man’.3 ‘He ... has seen a good deal of the world’, he wrote, ‘and without being a profound scholar is far from wanting either parts or knowledge.’4 Together they made the Grand Tour of Italy ‘in great harmony and good humour’,5 and their friendship continued after their return to England.

Guise, with the support of the Berkeley interest, represented Gloucestershire without a contest. In Parliament he voted against North’s Administration; the Public Ledger in 1779 describes him as ‘a very independent man’. He voted for Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783. Guise is only twice reported to have spoken in the House: on militia affairs, 25 Apr. 1780, and in favour of sending a relief fund to Barbados, 24 Jan. 1781.

He died 6 Apr. 1783.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

  • 1. GEC, Baronetage.
  • 2. Pedigree of Guise in Trans. Bristol Glos. Arch. Soc. iii. 72.
  • 3. Gibbon to his stepmother, 18 June 1763.
  • 4. Same to same, 7 Dec. 1763.
  • 5. Gibbon to his fa., 4 June 1764.