Family and Education

b. ?1691, 3rd s. of Sir Benjamin Bathurst, M.P., by Frances, da. of Sir Allen Apsley; bro. of Allen, 1st Baron Bathurst. educ. Eton 1699; Trinity, Oxf. 30 June 1708, aged 16. m. (1) Finetta (d. 1738), da. of Henry Poole of Kemble, Glos., 22 ch.; (2) 22 Oct. 1741, Catherine, da. of Rev. Lawrence Brodrick, wid. of William Whitfield, 14 ch.

Offices Held

Biography

Bathurst was a Tory. In 1754 he did not stand for Gloucester; was rebuffed at Shrewsbury; and finally was returned by the Duke of Beaufort at Monmouth. He does not appear in Fox’s list of Members in favour of the peace preliminaries, early December 1762, nor did he vote against them. On general warrants he voted against the Grenville Administration, 15 and 18 Feb. 1764, and was classed by Newcastle, 10 May 1764, as a ‘sure friend’. Yet on 30 Sept. 1764 Lord Botetourt, who managed the Beaufort interest during the minority of the 5th Duke, wrote to Grenville:1

Mr. B[athurst] having expressed some difficulties from his present engagements has proposed vacating his seat upon condition of a pension of five hundred a year being settled on his wife during her life. Have told him that I would report his words, that I felt the approaching distress of his numerous family, and should be happy to serve him.

The nature of Grenville’s reply can be gathered from Botetourt’s letter to him of 6 Oct.:2

I entirely approve the determination against pensions for life and told it my friend when I read his words, which were put upon paper at my request in order to make mistake impossible. I likewise told him that the sum he asked was beyond what I had hopes of obtaining.

In July 1765 Bathurst was classed by Rockingham as ‘pro’, and he did not vote against the repeal of the Stamp Act. In over fifty years’ parliamentary service he is not known to have spoken. He died 5 Nov. 1767.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Grenville mss (JM).
• 2. Ibid.