CHAMBERLAYNE, George (?1703-57), of Wardington, Oxon. and Hillesden, Bucks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

20 Feb. 1728 - 1747

Family and Education

b. ?1703, o.s. of George Chamberlayne of Wardington by Elizabeth, da. of Alexander Denton, M.P., of Hillesden, sis. of Alexander Denton. educ. St. Edmund Hall, Oxf. 24 Mar. 1721, aged 17. m. 27 May 1732, Constance, da. of R.-Adm. Sir Thomas Hardy, M.P., formerly of Jersey, 1da. who m. Wenman Coke. suc. uncle Alexander Denton at Hillesden 1740 and took name of Denton.

Offices Held

Biography

George Chamberlayne was descended from a younger son of Sir Thomas Chamberlayne of Wickham, Oxon., justice of the King’s bench, whose eldest son Thomas was created a baronet in 1643. Returned as a Whig on the interest of his uncle, Alexander Denton, for Buckingham at a by-election in 1728, he was re-elected without opposition in 1734 and 1741. In Parliament he at first voted with the Administration on the army 1732 and the excise bill 1733; but though listed as a government candidate before the 1734 election,1 he went into opposition, probably with the Grenvilles under Lord Cobham, voting against the Government on the Spanish convention in 1739 and the chairman of the elections committee in 1741. After Walpole’s fall there is no record of his voting but he seems to have remained in opposition, apparently breaking with the Grenvilles when they went over to the Government, for in 1747 he was not put up for Buckingham, never standing again. The 2nd Lord Egmont wrote of Buckingham in his electoral survey, c.1749-50: ‘The Grenvilles to be routed at all events, and two friends brought in’, the Prince of Wales adding, ‘Which may be done ... by Mr. Denton’. He died 14 May 1757.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss 68.