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PAKINGTON, Sir John, 4th Bt. (1671-1727), of Westwood, nr. Droitwich, Worcs.
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Biography Detail
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Family and Education
b. 16 Mar. 1671, o.s. of Sir John Pakington, 3rd Bt., M.P., by Margaret, da. of Sir John Keyt, 1st Bt., of Ebrington, Glos. educ. St. John’s, Oxf. 1688. m. (1) lic. 28 Aug. 1691, Frances, da. of Sir Henry Parker, 2nd Bt., M.P., of Honington, Warws., 4s. d.v.p. 3da.; (2) lic. 26 Aug. 1700, Hester, da. and h. of Sir Herbert Perrott, M.P., of Haroldston, Pemb., 1s. suc. fa. Mar. 1688.
Offices Held
Recorder, Worcester 1726-d.
Biography
Sir John Pakington, a well-known Tory and member of the October Club, whose father and grandfather had both represented Worcestershire, was himself returned for the county for the tenth time in 1715, voting against the Administration in all recorded divisions of that Parliament. Although the greater part of his estates lay in Worcestershire, he was also lord of the manor of Aylesbury, where he had been returned in 1702, but in later life he does not seem to have exercised electoral influence in that borough. On 21 Sept. 1715 the House of Commons agreed to his arrest, with Sir William Wyndham and other Tories, on the ground that he was engaged in a design to support the Pretender’s intended invasion;1 but though forewarned, he made no attempt to escape and was able to prove his innocence before the Privy Council.2 A year later James Stanhope learned from Lord Townshend that Pakington was promoting a complimentary address from his county to the Prince of Wales during the King’s absence.3 Speaking against the peerage bill in December 1719 Pakington
enumerated what had been done in every session for the Crown, and at the end of each sentence concluded, who was this done by? Why surely by the House of Commons against whom the door of the House of Peers is to be now shut, and why? Why truly to screen two noble dukes and advance half-a-dozen of our members; when that was done, all would be safe.4
In 1721 his name was sent as a probable supporter in the event of a rising to the Pretender, who, the following year, thanked him for his ‘zeal and readiness to serve me’.5 Returned for the last time in 1722, he alone opposed the re-election of the Speaker, Spencer Compton, in
a very reflecting speech upon him without any provocation, complaining he was never invited to dinner by him or the Green Cloth all the last Parliament, took notice of his great places and that he might possibly pass his accounts [as paymaster of the forces abroad] by privy seal as his predecessor, meaning Lord Chandos, had done, took notice there was no necessity of having men of great parts in the Chair, provided they had nothing in view but the service of the House, and that it was preposterous to go to plough with a razor.6
He died soon after the dissolution of Parliament, 13 Aug. 1727.
