ANGERSTEIN, John (?1774-1858), of Woodlands, Kent.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1796 - 1802
1835 - 1837

Family and Education

b. ?1774, o.s. of John Julius Angerstein of Woodlands by 1st w. Anne, da. of Henry Muilman (d.1772), wid. of Charles Crokatt of Luxborough Hall, Essex. m. 2 Oct. 1799, Amelia, da. of William Lock of Norbury Park, Surr., 3s. 2da. suc. fa. 1823.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Norf. 1831-2.

Vol. London and Westminster light horse 1796-1815; dir. Greenwich Hosp. 1810.

Biography

Angerstein’s father came to England from his native Russia as a youth, became an underwriter at Lloyd’s, was naturalized in 1770 and after a long partnership with his father, acquired a fortune as a loan contractor during the French revolutionary war.1 He retired from the City in 1811, living in princely style, a patron of the arts and of charities. Not he himself (as has often been stated) but his only son, John, came into Parliament in 1796 for Camelford on the government interest, after a contest. Angerstein asked the Treasury to find him a seat and ‘unexpectedly’, reported George Rose, agreed to pay £4,500, whereupon Rose allocated to him a seat ‘where less will not be taken’.2 He silently supported Pitt, voting with ministers on the loyalty loan, 1 June 1797, after his father had subscribed £60,000 to it, but proceeded to join opposition on the question of the Ferrol expedition, 19 Feb. 1801, as also on Tierney’s motion of 22 Apr. He went out of Parliament at the dissolution. By 1806 he was an East India Company stockholder.

At his next successful nomination (in January 1835 for Greenwich) he reminded his hearers that he had once sat for a nomination borough for which the full equivalent had been paid, but it was with feelings of pain he did so, as he objected to such a system of representation. He now described himself as a constitutional reformer, ‘a Radical to a certain extent, but no Destructive’.3

He died 8 Apr. 1858, aged 84.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: Arthur Aspinall

Notes

  • 1. John Julius, who described himself, as a tontine nominee, as son of Peter and Ever Angerstein, was reported to be one of the illegitimate children of Andrew Thomson, a Russia merchant. There is an uncorroborated story that Angerstein’s mother was the Empress Elizabeth and that Thomson was endowed by her with a fortune of 100,000 gold roubles, N. and Q. (ser. 10), iv. 66; Farington Diary (Yale ed.), vi. 2059. The Gent. Mag., however, reports the death of Angerstein’s mother at St. Petersburg, 12 Aug. 1807, aged 93.
  • 2. E. Suff. RO, Tomline mss, Rose to Pitt, 11 Apr. 1796.
  • 3. The Times, 7 Jan. 1835.