MABERLY, William Leader (1798-1885), of Shirley House, Surr.

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

Constituency

Dates

1 May 1819 - 1820
1820 - 1830
19 Apr. 1831 - 1832
1832 - June 1834

Family and Education

b. 7 May 1798, 1st s. of John Maberly*. educ. Eton 1811; Brasenose, Oxf. 1815. m. 11 Nov. 1830, Catherine Charlotte, da. of Hon. Francis Aldborough Prittie* of Corville, co. Tipperary, s.p.

Offices Held

Lt. 7 Drag. 1815, 9 Drag. 1817; capt. 100 Ft. 1818, 84 Ft. 1824; maj. 72 Ft. 1825; lt.-col. 96 Ft. 1826, 76 Ft. 1827; half-pay 1832; ret. 1881.

Surveyor-gen. of Ordnance Jan. 1831-Dec. 1832; clerk of Ordnance 1833-4; commr. of customs June 1834-Sept. 1836; jt. sec. GPO 1836, permanent sec. 1846-54; commr. of audit 1854-67.

Biography

Maberly’s ‘remarkable father, whose aspirations the son did not fulfil, though he conducted himself with credit in command of a regiment and as secretary to the General Post Office’, intended him to stand for Northampton in 1818. He was not quite of age, and his prospects were compromised by a bribery incident, so he withdrew. At the next general election he was successful there, but meanwhile he came in on a vacancy for Westbury as a paying guest of (Sir) Manasseh Masseh Lopes*.

In the year he entered Parliament, Maberly was a member of a debating society in Queen Anne Street. There he was as ‘indefatigable though ineffective as a speaker ... as in the House of Commons’. In his first Parliament he is not known to have uttered. His father was then in steady opposition and he followed suit, casting no vote that his father did not. His first was on 6 May 1819 in favour of burgh reform and on 18 May he voted for Tierney’s censure motion. He opposed the budget proposals, 7 and 9 June, and the foreign enlistment bill on 10 June. In the next session he voted against repressive measures, at least until 20 Dec. Maberly died 6 Feb. 1885.

Teignmouth, Reminiscences, i. 219; DNB; J. C. Cox, Recs. of Northampton, 509.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes