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MUNDY, Edward Miller (1750-1822), of Shipley Hall, nr. Ilkeston, Derbys.
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Biography Detail
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. 18 Oct. 1750, o.s. of Edward Mundy by Hester, da. and h. of Humphrey Miller of Shipley Hall. educ. Eton 1762-7. m. (1) Frances (d. 28 Oct. 1783), da. and coh. of Godfrey Meynell of Yeldersley, Derbys., 5s. 1da. (2) 14 Jan. 1788, Georgiana (d. 29 June 1789), da. and event. coh. of Col. Evelyn Chadwick of West Leake, Notts., wid. of Thomas Willoughby, 4th Baron Middleton, 1da.; (3) 19 Oct. 1811, Catherine, da. of Nathaniel Coffin of Bristol, Glos., wid. of Richard Barwell*, 1s. suc. fa. 1767; mother 1767.
Offices Held
Capt. Derbys. vol. cav. 1794; col. 2 regt. Derbys. militia 1803.
Biography
Mundy, an independent country gentleman, represented Derbyshire for 38 years without apparently uttering a word in debate. In his first Parliament he had opposed Pitt in 1786 and over the Regency. On 12 Apr. 1791 he again did so on Grey’s Oczakov resolutions, and joined Brooks’s Club in May; but at that time he was listed ‘doubtful’ on the Test Act repeal question. On 17 Feb. 1793 he confirmed expectations of a change of tack and attended the second meeting of Windham’s ‘third party’. He cast no known minority vote afterwards until 1804, rallying to administration. He preferred country life and evidence of his attendance is thin. His second wife had brought him a great fortune and died a year later: in 1803 Lord Minto reported that he was marrying again ‘for pleasure not profit’, but he thought better of it.1
On 25 Apr. 1804 Mundy arrived in town to vote for Pitt’s defence motion which toppled Addington’s ministry:2 he was listed a supporter of Pitt’s second ministry. He voted in the minority against the Grenville ministry’s repeal of Pitt’s Additional Force Act, 30 Apr. 1806, and was later a member of the Pitt Club. He was listed in 1806 as a staunch friend of the abolition of the slave trade. He was favourable to the Portland and Perceval administrations and the Whigs were ‘doubtful’ of attracting him in 1810, when he turned up to support ministers on the Scheldt inquiry, 30 Mar.
Mundy was listed a Treasury supporter after the election of 1812. He voted against Catholic relief, 2 Mar., 11 and 24 May 1813. On 28 and 30 June 1815 he rebelled against the Duke of Cumberland’s marriage grant and on 6 Mar. 1816 voted against the army estimates, but he was in the government minority for the continuation of the property tax, 18 Mar. In December of that year he assured a Whig busybody that the latter ‘should not be dissatisfied with his conduct next sessions’.3 He did not give this satisfaction; nor did he give Lord Liverpool the satisfaction of rallying to the Duke of Clarence’s marriage grant in April 1818. After leave for ill health, he attended to vote against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May 1819, and for the foreign enlistment bill, 10 June. He died 18 Oct. 1822.
