Family and Education

b. 10 Dec. 1753, 2nd s. of Constantine Phipps, 1st Baron Mulgrave [I], by Lepell, da. of John, Lord Hervey; bro. of Hon. Constantine John and Hon. Henry Phipps.  unm.

Offices Held

Lt. R.N. 1771; capt. 1776.

Biography

Professionally and politically Phipps followed in the wake of his brother, Constantine John, to whose influence he probably owed his early promotion to the rank of captain. In 1779, when Sir Hugh Palliser resigned his seat for Scarborough, Phipps was elected on the Admiralty interest with Palliser’s assistance.1 In 1780, Phipps was returned unopposed: his brother refused to accept a Government seat for him at any other place, and to satisfy him, Lord Sandwich arranged that Palliser should not stand.2 Phipps silently supported North’s Government. ‘He bears a good character in his profession’, the English Chronicle wrote in 1781, ‘and has sense enough to know that in the House of Commons he is to vote, and not to speak.’ But his naval duties often kept him away from the House, and he did not vote on Shelburne’s peace preliminaries or Fox’s East India bill. At the beginning of 1784, with his brother, he deserted North and Sandwich for Pitt, and at the general election unsuccessfully contested Scarborough on his brother’s and the Admiralty interest. In June 1784 a seat was found for him at Minehead, by Treasury arrangement with the patron, John Fownes Luttrell.  He died 20 Oct. 1786.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: I. R. Christie

Notes

• 1. Laprade, 73, 122; Palliser to Sandwich, 7 Mar. 1784, Sandwich mss.
• 2. Ibid., Leeds Intelligencer, 12 Sept. 1780.