STANHOPE, Lovell (1720-83), of Winchester, Hants.

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

1774 - 19 Sept. 1783

Family and Education

bap. 12 Dec. 1720, 4th s. of Rev. Michael Stanhope, canon of St. Paul’s and later of Windsor, a distant cos. of Philip, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, by Penelope, da. of Sir Salathiel Lovell, a baron of the Exchequer.  educ. L. Inn 1743, called 1747.  unm.

Offices Held

Law clerk to the secretaries of state 1747-74; agent for Jamaica 1757-63; gentleman usher to the Queen 1761; under-sec. of state 1764-5, Jan.-Mar. 1771; clerk comptroller of the Board of Green Cloth 1780-2.

Biography

Stanhope was introduced into the secretary of state’s office by Lord Chesterfield, was private secretary to Bedford as secretary of state (1748-51), and in 1755 tried to get Bedford to recommend him to Henry Fox as under-secretary.1 In March 1761 Lord Carnarvon applied to Bute on his behalf. He was appointed under-secretary in 1764 by Lord Halifax, and re-appointed in July 1765 by Grafton; after a few days he resigned on learning that while Grafton wished him ‘to give his whole attendance to the office’, Stonehewer, Grafton’s private secretary ‘only should attend his person and receive his commands’.2 In January 1771 he returned to office with Halifax, but in March retired with a pension for life of £564 per annum.

In 1774 Stanhope resigned his law clerkship to stand for Winchester on the interest of the Duke of Chandos (formerly Carnarvon), and was given a secret service pension of £100 (held in trust for him by W. Cory). He was returned unopposed, supported North’s Administration till the end, and voted against Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783. There is no record of his having spoken in the House.  He died 19 Sept. 1783.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

  • 1. Bedford to Stanhope, 17 Oct. 1755, Bedford mss.
  • 2. HMC 10th Rep. I, 393.