SLOANE, Hans (1739-1827), of South Stoneham, Hants.

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

Constituency

Dates

1768 - 1780
1780 - 1784
23 Oct. 1788 - 1796
1796 - 1806

Family and Education

b. 14 Nov. 1739, 3rd but 1st surv. s. of William Sloane of South Stoneham by 3rd w. Elizabeth, da. of John Fuller of Brightling, Suss. educ. Newcome’s acad. Hackney; Trinity Coll. Camb. 1757; I. Temple 1755. m. 24 June 1772, his cos. Sarah, da. and coh. of Stephen Fuller of Bloomsbury, Mdx., 4s. 1da. suc. Hans Stanley to Paultons, Hants and Chelsea estate 1780, subject to life interest of Stanley’s sisters, wives of Welbore Ellis* and Christopher D’Oyly who renounced it for an annual rent in 1802. Took additional name of Stanley 24 Dec. 1821.

Offices Held

Dep. cofferer of Household 1770-82; commr. of trade Sept. 1780-July 1782.

Col. N. Hants militia 1780, 1794-1800; brevet col. 1794.

Biography

Hans Sloane owed virtually everything to his relative Hans Stanley, but by 1790 he had lost the latter’s electoral interest at Southampton and was sitting for Christchurch on the interest of James Harris, later Lord Malmesbury. After opposing Pitt over the Regency, he also paired against him on the Oczakov question, 12 Apr. 1791, was listed ‘doubtful’ on the question of Test Act repeal the same month, and voted against him over the Russian armament, 1 Mar. 1792. Thereafter no minority vote is known. Listed a Portland Whig in December 1792, he was among those invited to Windham’s house and attended on 10 and 17 Feb. 1793. He was referred to by Lord Buckingham, writing to Lord Grenville, 4 Oct. 1793, as ‘one of your new converts’, who had ‘passed his summer with his regiment under the Duke of Richmond’.1 He showed some enthusiasm for the militia unit he formed and several speeches on militia organization were reported. He was one of those Members consulted by Pitt on the subject. He was at first against incorporation of the militia in the regular army, but after supporting the use of the militia in Ireland, 20 June 1798, he changed his mind, 12 June 1799.2 He had voted for Pitt’s assessed taxes, 4 Jan. 1798.

Malmesbury having lost his interest at Christchurch, Sloane came in by purchase on the Mount Edgcumbe interest in 1796 for Lostwithiel, a seat available to friends of government. He voted and spoke with Pitt at variance with the Addington administration, 3 June 1803, was one of Pitt’s friends who abstained from voting on Wrottesley’s motion, 7 Mar. 1804,3 voted in Pitt’s minority of 15 Mar. and voted with Fox, 23 Apr., and Pitt, 25 Apr., in their defence motions. He supported Pitt’s second administration and the Grenville ministry. After being absent on 3 Mar. 1806, to the disappointment of Pitt’s friends, he voted for the repeal of Pitt’s Additional Force Act on 30 Apr. 1806. At the dissolution that year he was persuaded to retire to suit Lord Grenville. Malmesbury informed his son, 18 Dec. 1806:

You see Lord Grenville has given ... Sloane a living—it is that which was Jonathan Rashleigh’s in Lincolnshire and I somehow or another [sic] believe it is connected with Sloane’s giving up Parliament as Rashleigh (the brother) managed Lostwithiel for him, which you was to have had and would have had, if Pitt had lived—no blame attached to Sloane in all this.

On 1 Oct. Malmesbury had reported that Sloane had approached Rashleigh about an annuity, ‘but I much fear it will not be listened to’,4 and on 21 Nov. Sloane approached Lord Grenville, through a friend, telling him that Pitt had promised to secure, after Rashleigh’s brother’s death, a living ‘held under the crown’ for his son Stephen, but Pitt’s death had rendered uncertain

the accomplishment of this object, unless the many many years bringing myself into Parliament and supporting that administration of which Lord Grenville formed so distinguished a part, can be brought forward now as a claim for a single mark of favour to my son, when I am obliged after being in Parliament nearly 38 years, to retire from it by ill health suffering from my long attendance on the duties of it.

Being the only Member in the House who had been an officer in the commencement of the militia establishment, one most essential point to the State, I carried in Parliament, by introducing some years past the first enlisting a certain number of men out of the militia for the artillery, by which so many other measures for adding to the strength of the army became so easy to be accomplished.5

Sloane appeared in the Duke of Portland’s patronage book as wishing for a peerage subsequently. In 1804 he sold Stoneham and began embellishing Paultons, his new residence, which work was completed in 1808.6

Sloane survived until 1827. In 1809 Lady Harriet Cavendish, who visited his family at Paultons, reported that ‘Mr Sloane, the old one, tells long stories from morning to night which, however, he is very kind in not seeming to wish one to attend to much. He is a very respectable, good sort of man.’7

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes

  • 1. Add. 37873, f. 201; HMC Fortescue, ii. 437.
  • 2. Add. 35393, f. 3.
  • 3. Lonsdale mss, Ward to Lowther, 8 Mar. 1804.
  • 4. Malmesbury mss, FitzHarris to Malmesbury, 4 Mar., Malmesbury to FitzHarris, 18 Dec. 1806.
  • 5. Fortescue mss, Sloane to Ld. (forwarded to Ld. Grenville).
  • 6. Dorset RO, Bond mss D367, Jekyll to Bond, 15 Dec. 1804, 29 Apr. 1808.
  • 7. Letters of Lady Harriet Cavendish, 326.