Family and Education

b. ?1684, 1st surv. s. of John Affleck of Fort St. George, India by Nealtie, da. of Gilbert Schape, merchant of Amsterdam. educ. Ch. Ch. Oxf. 6 Feb. 1702, aged 17. m. 3 Nov. 1705, Anna, da. of John Dolben of Finedon, Northants., 12s. 6da. suc. fa. 1718.

Offices Held

Biography

Affleck was the son of a servant of the East India Company, who bought Dalham and other property in Suffolk about 1711. He was returned unopposed as a Tory for Cambridge at a by-election in 1722 on the interest of his cousin, Sir John Hynde Cotton, who had been returned for the borough at the general election but chose to sit for the county. On learning of his election a friend commented:

Parliamenteering will not do well to one with such a family as Affleck has at any time and much less after losses in the bubble that I am afraid are not inconsiderable.1

He did not stand again till 1736, when he put up for a vacancy at Cambridge with the support of Samuel Shepheard, against Cotton’s candidate. On 28 Nov. 1736 Cotton wrote to Lord Oxford, asking for his support against

an extraordinary conjunction of interest between Mr. Affleck and Mr. Shepheard; indeed I could not explain Mr. Affleck’s message to me that he was determined to stand whether I was for him or not, which occasioned my immediate joining with Mr. Askham’s interest, but now the mask is pulled off I find I must battle the Whig interest once more at Cambridge in which I don’t in the least doubt of success if those old friends who I am sure can’t approve Mr. A.’s conduct will give me their assistance ... While it remained a Tory dispute I thought it might put you under some difficulty, which this conjunction I think has thoroughly removed to all those who wish well to the old Tory interest of Cambridge.2

Oxford declining to intervene,3 Affleck was returned. He voted against the Government, did not stand again, and died 12 Nov. 1764, aged 79.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. HMC Portland, vii. 335.
• 2. Cotton mss in possession of Col. C. H. Antrobus.
• 3. 30 Nov. 1736, ibid.