FREEMAN, Sambrooke (1721-82), of Fawley Court, Henley-on-Thames, Berks.

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
1768 - 1774

Family and Education

b. c.1721, 2nd s. of John Cooke (who assumed name of Freeman on succeeding to estates of his uncle, William Freeman of St. Kitts and Fawley) by Susanna, da. of Sir Jeremy Sambrooke. educ. Univ. Coll. Oxf. 1739. m. Dec. 1757, Sarah Winsford of Glasshampton, Worcs.

Offices Held

Biography

Freeman was returned unopposed at Pontefract on the interest of his friend George Morton Pitt, M.P., and was classed by Dupplin as a country gentleman, supporting Administration. He did not stand in 1761, but in 1768 was returned unopposed for Bridport, possibly introduced there through his West Indian connexion. He voted with Administration on the Middlesex election, 8 May 1769, but does not appear in any other list until March 1772, when, in Robinson’s first survey on the royal marriage bill he was described as ‘doubtful, present’, and in the second as ‘pro, present’. He voted for Administration on the Middlesex election, 26 Apr. 1773, but on the bill for perpetuating Grenville’s Election Act, 25 Feb. 1774, appears in George III’s list as a friend voting for the bill and twice spoke against the Government, ‘though sorry to differ in opinion from the noble lord [North] for whose opinion [he had] the greatest regard’. His only other recorded speech was on the Reading canal bill, 21 Feb. 1771, when he explained he was ‘so unused to speak in this House if I should not acquit myself so cleverly’.1

Freeman stood again at Bridport in 1774 but was defeated.

He died 21 Sept. 1782.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

  • 1. Cavendish’s ‘Debates’, Egerton 252, p. 185; 225, p. 150.