Family and Education

b. 8 Feb. 1700, 1st s. of Gilbert Charlton (s. of Sir Job Charlton, 1st Bt., M.P.) by Anne, da. and h. of Harvey Staunton of Staunton Hall. educ. St. Catherine’s, Camb. 1718; L. Inn 1718. m. 30 Dec. 1725, Mary, da. of Daniel Greenwood, M.D., of Northampton, 4da. suc. fa. 1703; and to his mother’s Staunton estates 1732.

Offices Held

Clerk of deliveries in the Ordnance 1751-8; chairman of ways and means, House of Commons 1752-61.

Biography

Charlton was Newcastle’s chief election agent in Nottinghamshire and his manager at Newark. For these services he received a place (not a sinecure) in the Ordnance at a salary of £400 p.a., which he exchanged in 1758 for a pension of £500 on Ireland; and in 1752 he was appointed chairman of committees with £500 p.a. out of secret service funds. In 1754 Newcastle procured a grant of £1,000 from secret service funds towards his election expenses, which appear to have amounted to about £1,700.1

In March 1761 Charlton, who had now become unpopular at Newark, applied to Newcastle for leave to retire on grounds of ill health. Still, he wrote on 5 Mar.,2 ‘If any untoward circumstances should make my continuing ... necessary to your Grace’s interest I must submit.’ His resignation was accepted, but when he remained neutral in the contest of 1761 Newcastle thought it ‘hard, after all the many great and permanent obligations he has to me’.3

Charlton died February 1778.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Namier, Structure, 200, 228.
• 2. Add. 32919, f. 458.
• 3. Newcastle to John White, 25 Mar. 1761, Add. 32921, f. 59.