Family and Education

b. 12 Aug. 1748, o.s. of Richard Gamon of Datchworthbury, Herts. by Elizabeth, da. of John Grace of the Grange, Queen’s Co. educ. Winchester. m. (1) 2 Jan. 1772, Grace (d. 10 Aug. 1794), da. of James Jeffreys, s.p.; (2) 2 July 1796, Lady Amelia Murray, da. of John Murray^†, 3rd Duke of Atholl [S], wid. of Capt. Thomas Ivie Cooke, 1da. suc. fa. 1787; cr. Bt. 11 May 1795 with spec. rem. to his cos. Richard Grace.

Offices Held

Cornet 1 Horse Gds. 1769, lt. 1771, ret. 1773.

Collector of taxes, Basse Terre, St. Kitts until 1783; sec. to board of excise 1777-84; commr. of salt duties Jan.-Apr. 1784.

Biography

Gamon’s brother-in-law and patron the 3rd Duke of Chandos died in 1789 leaving an heiress, Lady Kinloss, on whose interest he remained Member for Winchester. As before, he was a silent supporter of Pitt’s ministry. In 1791 he was listed hostile to the repeal of the Test Act in Scotland. On 4 Mar. 1793 he obtained leave of absence for a lawsuit in Ireland. In August 1794 he obtained the promise of a baronetcy from Pitt, sponsored by the Marquess of Buckingham who wished to marry his heir to Lady Kinloss. It was granted in May 1795 and within a year the marriage was solemnized. Gamon and his nephew-in-law soon fell out, as he resisted surrendering Winchester to him and thought instead of substituting his first wife’s half-nephew (Lord Southampton’s son) for himself. He did not achieve this, but he was not to be dislodged either. By a kind of stalemate he retained the seat, a political nonentity, until 1812, when Lord Buckingham was unable to make good his interest, but did so shortly before Gamon’s death.

Gamon remained, if anything, a supporter of the government of the day. He was so listed by the Treasury in 1804 and 1805, during Pitt’s ministry, but voted with the Grenville ministry for the repeal of Pitt’s Additional Force Act, 30 Apr. 1806. As a West India proprietor who had voted against the abolition of the slave trade, 15 Mar. 1796, he was still listed ‘adverse’ in 1806, though he is not credited with a word in debate on this or any other subject after 1789. An obituary recalled: ‘With him originated that useful and humane law for regulating the number of outside passengers on stage coaches’: but it was a dead letter. He took a month’s leave of absence for illness on 18 Mar. 1807 and was further absent on the critical division of 30 Mar. 1810 on the Scheldt inquiry, but the Whigs listed him ‘against the Opposition’. Gamon died 8/9 Apr. 1818.

PRO 30/8/117, f. 70; see WINCHESTER; Gent. Mag. (1818), i. 570; J. Wilson, Biog. Index (1808), 659.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Authors: Brian Murphy / R. G. Thorne

Notes