JONES, Walter (1754-1839), of Cork Abbey, co. Wicklow.

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

Constituency

Dates

1801 - 1806
4 Feb. 1807 - June 1809

Family and Education

b. 29 Dec. 1754, 1st s. of Theophilus Jones*. m. 8 Oct. 1805, Katherine Penelope, da. and coh. of Rev. Lascelles Iremonger, vicar of Chadfield, Hants, 5da.

Offices Held

MP [I] 1798-1800.

Paymaster of corn bounties by 1801; dep. paymaster of compensations by 1801.

Sheriff, co. Leitrim 1795-6, gov. 1805.

Col. Leitrim militia 1795-1807.

Biography

Jones, whose mother was a Beresford, was returned to the Irish parliament for Coleraine on his cousin Lord Waterford’s interest in 1798. After supporting the Union he retained the seat at Westminster, where he was regarded like his father as one of the Beresford squad. Though asked to attend in the 1801-2 session, he may not have done so: government also found it ‘shabby’ of him to absent himself, though in England, on the question of the inquiry into the Prince of Wales’s finances, 4 Mar. 1803. Otherwise he was a supporter of administration.

In April 1804 he was summoned from Ireland to rally to Pitt which, as soon as the latter was in power, he did. He was in the government minority on the censure of Melville, 8 Apr. 1805, and voted against Catholic claims, 14 May. He seems to have played the Beresfords’ waiting game with regard to the Grenville ministry and at the election of 1806 made way temporarily for Sir George Hill, until it turned out that the latter’s seat for Londonderry was secure. He was listed as having rallied to the Portland ministry in April 1807 and could be relied on by them to attend and support subsequently. In June 1809 he made way for another member of the Beresford family and left Parliament, without being credited with a speech. He died in 1839.

Add. 35766, f. 321; PRO 30/8/148, f. 272; Corresp. Rt. Hon. J. Beresford, ii. 288; Dublin Evening Post, 23 Apr. 1807.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: Arthur Aspinall

Notes