MARTIN, Samuel (1714-88), of Abingdon Bldgs., London.

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

Constituency

Dates

1747 - 1768
1768 - 1774

Family and Education

b. 1 Sept. 1714 in Antigua, 1st s. of Samuel Martin of Greencastle, Antigua, speaker of the assembly 1753-63, by his 1st w. Frances, da. of John Yeamans, attorney-gen. of Antigua; half-bro. of Josiah Martin, gov. of N. Carolina 1771-5. educ. Westminster; Trinity, Camb. 1729; I. Temple 1730, called 1736, bencher 1766. unm., 1s.1 suc. fa. 1776.

Offices Held

Dep. agent for Antigua 1742-4; agent for Monserrat 1742-9; for Nevis 1744-50; sec. to chancellor of the Exchequer Apr. 1754-Nov. 1755; sec. of the Treasury Nov. 1756-Apr. 1757, Apr. 1758-Apr. 1763, when given reversion of usher of the Exchequer (to which he never succeeded); treasurer to the Princess of Wales Oct. 1757-8 Feb. 1772. Granted I May 1772, pension of £1,200 for life.2

Biography

Martin came of one of the oldest and most respected West Indian families.3 In 1747 he was included in the Prince of Wales’s list of persons ‘not able to bring in themselves’ for whom safe seats had been provided.4 Returned by Thomas Pitt for Camelford, in February 1748 he opposed a bill of poundage on all imported goods and merchandises, enlarging on the ruinous effects of existing duties on English trade; on 4 Feb. 1751 he ‘made a speech of great wit against standing armies, with very new arguments’; and a few days later spoke ably against the Bavarian subsidy.5 The second Lord Egmont wrote of him as ‘a fellow whom I had supported with the Prince ... and who slighted me in the House, warping into Nugent’s set’, and who, on the Prince’s death ‘had insolently answered me the first day that his attachments were now at an end’.6 Going over to the Government, he supported the regency bill in May 1751, but in November of that year he voted against the army, with Lords Egmont and Middlesex, the only members of the late Prince’s faction to do so.7

He died 20 Nov. 1788.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Add. 41347, f. 51b.
  • 2. T52/62/11-12.
  • 3. Caribbeana, i. 184.
  • 4. HMC Fortescue, i. 108.
  • 5. Parl. Hist. xiv. 178-9; Walpole, Mems. Geo. II, i. 26, 48.
  • 6. Occasional memoranda, Add. 47091.
  • 7. Mems. Geo. II, i. 136, 216.