HANGER, Gabriel (1697-1773), of Cannon Place, Bray, Berks. and Kempsford Hall, 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

25 Apr. 1753 - 1761
21 Nov. 1763 - 1768

Family and Education

b. 9 Jan. 1697, 1st surv. s. of Sir George Hanger of Driffield Hall, Glos., Turkey merchant, by Anne, da. and coh. of Sir John Beale, 1st Bt., of Farningham, Kent.  m. 18 Jan. 1736, Elizabeth, da. and h. of Richard Bond of Cobrey Court, Herefs., 3s. 1da.  suc. fa. 1731, and to Coleraine estates on d. of his cos. Anne, wid. of Henry Hare, 3rd Baron Coleraine [I] 1754;  cr. Baron Coleraine [I] 26 Feb. 1762.

Offices Held

Entered Bengal establishment of E.I. Co. 1714, factor 1718, junior merchant 1722, senior merchant 1724.

Biography

Hanger resigned from the East India Company on the death of his elder brother in 1725 and returned to England. He first stood for Parliament in 1753 at Maidstone, where he had some local connexions, but he seems to have owed his election to Lord Romney. At the general election Hanger stood jointly with Lord Guernsey, defeating Abraham Hume, who was supported by Newcastle. He was classed by Dupplin as a Tory, and was one of the Tories who voted with Newcastle’s friends, 12 Mar. 1755, on the Mitchell election petition.

On 12 Dec. 1760 Hanger applied to Newcastle for the peerage of Coleraine to be re-created in his favour:1

No one can be more zealously attached to his Majesty and his most illustrious family than I am, and I have a fortune equal to that or almost any title of nobility whatever. I have been in Parliament near ten years, and propose being in it again and never did ask your Grace or anybody for anything yet.

He stood again at Maidstone in 1761 on Lord Romney’s interest, but was defeated. On 14 Apr. 1761 he renewed his claim for a peerage, this time to Bute:2 ‘I have been in two Parliaments, and never once to the best of my knowledge all the time, ever gave a vote that I thought was contrary to the true interest of my country.’ Before the end of the year he was promised the title of Coleraine.

He commenced an election petition for Maidstone, but dropped it; and on 18 Dec. 1761 sounded Bute on the chances of Government support at Bath.3 In April 1763 he began a canvass of Gloucestershire, but withdrew when he found how little support he would receive. He wrote to Bute on 6 May, just after his resignation:4

I shall detain your Lordship only to ask the favour of you to mention me to the gentlemen in Administration as very desirous of coming into Parliament, cost what it will, on purpose to show my duty to his Majesty and my attachment to his measures, in opposition to that wicked cabal and seditious train of libels that are every day publishing to destroy the quiet of the best Prince and the rights and privileges of the happiest people under heaven.

He was recommended to Lord Egmont by Grenville for the seat at Bridgwater.5

Coleraine voted for the repeal of the cider tax on 10 Feb. 1764, but with Administration over general warrants on 18 Feb., and in July 1765 was classed by Rockingham as ‘contra’. He does not appear in the printed list of those who voted against the repeal of the Stamp Act on 22 Feb. 1766, but is included in the second of Sir William Meredith’s lists of the minority. On 28 Apr. and 12 May 1766 he voted against the window tax, and on 9 Dec. 1766 spoke against Chatham’s East India proposals. He voted against the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767.

He did not stand at the general election of 1768, and died 24 Jan. 1773.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: A. N. Newman

Notes

  • 1. Add. 32916, f. 15.
  • 2. Bute mss.
  • 3. Egremont to Bute, 25 Apr. 1761, ibid.
  • 4. Ibid.
  • 5. Grenville to Egmont, 1 Nov. 1763, Grenville letter bk.