LANE, Robert (1732-68), of Bramham Park, Yorks.

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

1761 - 1768

Family and Education

b. 5 Aug. 1732, o.s. of George Fox Lane.  m. (1) 15 May 1760, Mildred (d. 3 Dec. 1760), da. and h. of John Bourchier of Beningborough, Yorks., s.p.; (2) 29 June 1761, Hon. Bridget Henley, da. of Robert, 1st Lord Henley, subsequently 1st Earl of Northington, s.p.

Offices Held

Biography

In 1758 Lane, prompted by his father, stood for York but was defeated after an expensive contest. In 1761 George Lane retired from Parliament, and Robert was returned unopposed in his place. Classed in Bute’s list as ‘Chancellor’ and ‘Bute’; he appears in Henry Fox’s list of Members favourable to the peace preliminaries, December 1762, and was counted by Jenkinson in the autumn of 1763 as ‘pro’. Yet Rockingham, July 1765, also classed him as ‘pro’ (and he did not vote against the repeal of the Stamp Act), but in November 1766 as ‘Bute’. Charles Townshend, January 1767, marked him as ‘Government’, and he voted with the Administration on the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767.

Three speeches by Lane are recorded: he introduced a bill to enable freemen to give evidence about their city affairs, 11 Mar. 1762; presented a petition about the high price of corn in the north, 15 Dec. 1762; and moved a congratulatory address to the Princess Dowager, 19 Jan. 1764.1

On 12 Mar. 1768 Lane was once more nominated at York, but on 14 Mar. informed the lord mayor ‘that he must from the ill state of his health decline’. Lord Winchilsea wrote about him to Lord Rockingham, 19 Mar. 1768:2

He had this whole winter told Lord and Lady Bingley what his intention was and they would neither believe that his health was so bad nor consent to the resolution he had taken to decline being in Parliament, so he was forced to put his resolution into execution without their knowledge or consent. This had raised a flame and a violent quarrel in the Bingley family.

Lane died in May 1768.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

  • 1. Harris’s ‘Debates’.
  • 2. Rockingham mss.