Family and Education

bap. 30 July 1738, o.s. of Rev. Francis Bromley, rector of Wickham, Hants by Rebecca, da. and h. of Dr. Francis Gastrell, bishop of Chester; gd.-s. of William Bromley, M.P., Speaker 1710-13. educ. Westminster; Ch. Ch. Oxf. 1757. m. 20 Apr. 1765, Elizabeth Lucy, da. and h. of Richard Howe Chester of Haseley, and heiress of her uncle Thomas Chester, and took add. name of Chester, s.p.

Offices Held

Biography

Chester, supported by the Duke of Beaufort against G. C. Berkeley, was returned in 1776 after a very expensive contest, and his election confirmed after a petition the following year. His election expenses were so great that in January 1780 there was ‘still a large sum unpaid’, and some of Chester’s friends arranged a meeting to get ‘gentlemen to subscribe some small or moderate sum annually for 3 years’, for ‘poor Chester’ had paid ‘so large a sum already, nearly £18,000 in defence of this common cause’, that it would be ‘hard upon him to pay much more’.1

Chester generally supported Administration, but on the contractors bill, 12 Feb. 1779, was noted by Robinson as a friend voting in opposition; and he again voted against Administration on the abolition of the Board of Trade, 13 Mar. 1780. His subsequent votes were for Administration, and he was listed as ‘pro’ in Robinson’s 1780 survey. There is no record of his having spoken in the House: according to the family historian, Chester ‘made no distinguished figure in Parliament’ but ‘took an active part in county business and was highly respected by his neighbours and constituents’.2

Returned without opposition at the general election, he died 12 Dec. 1780.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

• 1. J. Webb to John Parsons, 4 Jan. 1780, Gloucester Coll. Gloucester Pub. Lib.
• 2. R. E. C. Waters, Fam. of Chester, 46.