MONOUX, Sir Humphrey, 4th Bt. (?1702-57), of Wootton, Beds.

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

Constituency

Dates

24 Feb. 1728 - 1734
1734 - 1741

Family and Education

b. ?1702, o.s. of Sir Philip Monoux, 3rd Bt., M.P., by Dorothy, da. of William Harvey of Chigwell, Essex. educ. Trinity, Oxf. 19 Feb. 1720, aged 17. m. 11 Dec. 1742, Jane Elizabeth, wid. of Charles Wake Jones of Waltham Abbey, Essex, da. of Sir Samuel Vanacker Sambrooke, 3rd Bt., sis. of Sir Jeremy Vanacker Sambrooke, 4th Bt., s.p. suc. fa. 25 Nov. 1707.

Offices Held

Biography

Monoux, whose family since 15141 had been seated at Wootton, not far from Woburn, contested the county unsuccessfully as a Tory in 1727. Brought in next year by his neighbour, the 3rd Duke of Bedford, for Tavistock, where he succeeded his uncle, Sir John Cope, he voted against the Government. In 1734 he was returned by the Duke of Marlborough for Stockbridge, according to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, ‘to buy ... his interest’ for Marlborough’s brother, John Spencer, who was standing as the 4th Duke of Bedford’s candidate for Bedfordshire. After observing that he had ‘picked the late Duke of Bedford’s pocket and was a confederate in all the mischiefs that happened to him’, i.e. in the Duke’s ruinous gambling proclivities, she went on to say that ‘though I believe he will be a sure vote against the ministers from his being a Jacobite, yet I think it is mighty disagreeable to choose so scandalous a man when one might have put in one of reputation, and without adding to the numbers of what all people who love their country wished to do’.2

Monoux, who duly voted against the Government, did not stand again. He died 3 Dec. 1757.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Shirley Matthews

Notes

  • 1. Walthamstow Antiq. Soc. Publ. xvii. 1; VCH Beds. iii. 329.
  • 2. G. Scott Thomson, Letters of a Grandmother, 114.