Family and Education

bap. 23 Dec. 1696, 1st surv. s. of Ralph Jenison of Elswick and Walworth by Elizabeth, da. and h. of Cuthbert Heron of Chipchase, Northumb. educ. Christ’s, Camb. 1719-20. m. 10 Dec. 1751, Susan, da. of Thomas Allan of the Flatts, co. Dur., 1s. d.v.p. suc. fa. 1704; gd.-fa. Robert Jenison 1714.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Northumb. 1716; freeman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1718; master of the buckhounds 1737-44, 1746-57.

Biography

Jenison, who came of an old family of Newcastle merchants, was returned for Northumberland on petition in 1724. He usually supported the Government, but was absent from the division on the excise bill in 1733 and voted for the repeal of the Septennial Act in 1734. Re-elected in 1734 after an expensive contest, he was made master of the buckhounds in succession to Lord Tankerville, with whom he was politically connected, in 1737. Probably owing to the cost of the contest of 1734, which seriously impaired his fortune, he did not stand for Northumberland in 1741, when a promise of a seat obtained for him by Tankerville from Walpole in 1740 came to nothing.1 Forced to sell Elswick Hall in 1742 he gave up the mastership of the buckhounds in 1744, receiving as compensation a pension of £1,200,2 till he recovered the post two years later when Tankerville refers to him as Newcastle’s ‘constant slave’. In the Northumberland by-election of February 1748 he acted as agent to Tankerville’s son, Lord Ossulston.3 He probably owed his return for Newport, Isle of Wight, in 1749 to Tankerville, whose brother-in-law, Lord Portsmouth, was governor of the island.

He died 15 May 1758.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Tankerville to Newcastle, 4 Feb. 1740, Add. 32696, f. 72; Jenison to Jacob Tonson, n.d., Add. 28275, f. 487.
• 2. Walpole to Mann, 24 Dec. 1744.
• 3. Tankerville to Newcastle, 17 Jan. 1747, and Jenison to Lady Tankerville, 1 Jan. 1748, Add. 32714, ff. 27, 63.