Family and Education

b. ?1742, o.s. of Sir John Philipps, 6th Bt.  educ. Pembroke, Oxf. 3 Feb. 1761, aged 18.  m. 2 June 1764, Mary, da. of James Philipps of Pentypark, Pemb., s.p.  suc. fa. as 7th Bt. 23 June 1764; cr. Baron Milford [I] 22 July 1776.

Offices Held

Custos rot. Haverfordwest 1765-70, ld. lt. 1770- d.; ld. lt. Pemb. 1781- d.

Biography

Sir Richard Philipps succeeded his father in the representation of Pembrokeshire in 1765, defeating Hugh Owen. Classed as a Tory by Newcastle and Rockingham, he voted with Opposition on the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767. Returned again for the county in 1768, he was unseated in March 1770, and was out of Parliament until the general election of 1774, when he came in for Plympton Erle as a Government supporter. In 1776 he was made an Irish peer, according to Wraxall (Mems. iii. 393) in compensation for the King’s refusal to permit him to build a road up to his house at St. James’s. Certainly his peerage can scarcely have been for political services, for he seems to have attended the House infrequently, and there is no evidence that he spoke during this period.

By February 1779 he had gone into Opposition, and resigned his seat soon afterwards. He contested Pembrokeshire unsuccessfully in 1780, but at the general election of 1784 defeated Lord Kensington, a Pittite, at Haverfordwest. He voted in favour of parliamentary reform, 18 Apr. 1785, and in opposition to Pitt’s Irish propositions, 13 May 1785. No other vote is recorded during this Parliament, but his correspondence in the Chatham mss makes it clear that he regarded himself as a supporter of the ministry.

Lord Milford died 28 Nov. 1823.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Peter D.G. Thomas

Notes