AMCOTTS, Charles (1729-77), of Harrington and Kettlethorpe, Lincs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1754 - 1761
22 Dec. 1766 - 14 Apr. 1777

Family and Education

bap. 25 June 1729, 2nd but o. surv. s. of Vincent Amcotts by Elizabeth, da. of John Quincey of Aslackby, Lincs. educ. Trinity Hall, Camb. 1746-9. unm. suc. fa. 1733, and his fa.’s half-bro. Charles Hall, M.P., to Kettlethorpe estates 1743.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Lincs. 1753-4; alderman, Boston 1774.

Biography

Expelled from Cambridge for drinking the Pretender’s health, Amcotts not surprisingly appears in Newcastle’s election lists of 1754, and in Dupplin’s list of Members, as a Tory. In October 1760 Newcastle described him as ‘the head’ of the Tory country gentlemen raising an opposition in the county. And on 20 Dec. 1760 Lord Monson wrote to Newcastle:1 ‘Yesterday Mr. Amcotts told me he has quite given up Boston, that I much fear he intends to disturb us at Lincoln.’ He did not stand for either at the general election; but was again returned unopposed for Boston at the by-election of December 1766. In Rockingham’s list of November 1766 he appears as ‘Tory, Bute’; in Townshend’s of January 1767 ‘Rockingham, country gentleman’; and in Newcastle’s of 2 Mar. 1767 ‘Tory’. In two out of the three division lists on the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767, he is marked as voting against Administration. But in divisions between 1768 and his death, Amcotts appears in almost every list of Government supporters and never with Opposition; and is always classed as ‘pro’ by Robinson. John Lee wrote to William Eden, 11 Oct. 1772:2 ‘While I was at Harrogate I met with Mr. Amcotts, a Lincolnshire Member, a most furious courtier, I need not add, formerly a most notorious Jacobite.’ Furious and notorious Amcotts may have been, but there is no record of his having spoken in the House. He died 14 Apr. 1777.3

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Sir Lewis Namier

Notes

  • 1. Add. 32916, f. 302.
  • 2. Add. 34412, f. 189.
  • 3. Maddison, Lincs. Peds.; London Mag. gives 20 Apr.