Family and Education

b. c.1740,1 1st s. of John Stratford (1st Baron Baltinglass [I] 1763, 1st Earl of Aldborough [I] 1777), by Martha, da. and coh. of Ven. Benjamin O’Neale, archdeacon of Leighlin.  m. (1) 29 July 1765, Barbara (d. 11 Apr. 1785), da. and h. of Hon. Nicholas Herbert of Great Glemham, Suff., s.p.; (2) 24 May 1787, Anne Elizabeth, da. of John Henniker sen., s.p.  suc. fa. as 2nd Earl of Aldborough [I] 29 June 1777.

Offices Held

M.P. [I] 1759-8, 1775-7.

Biography

Stratford, while still under age, was returned to the Irish House of Commons for the family borough of Baltinglass. On 26 Nov. 1767 he wrote to Lord Shelburne:2

I am likely to have in right of my wife a very considerable interest in Suffolk, and the probability of a borough; we have many relations in both Houses of Parliament here ... I would be glad to attach myself to some nobleman of weight.

Shelburne’s answer is not known, but Stratford does not appear to have stood at the general election of 1768, though he vacated his Irish seat that year. In 1774 he successfully contested Taunton with Administration support, but in March 1775 was unseated on petition. He was again returned for Baltinglass the same year, and henceforth appears to have limited himself to Irish politics.

He died 2 Jan. 1801.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

• 1. HMC 14th Rep. IX, 199.
• 2. Lansdowne mss.