Family and Education

b. 13 Sept. 1718, 1st s. of Henry Vernon, M.P., of Hilton Park by Penelope, da. and coh. of Robert Philips of Newton Regis, Warws.; bro. of Richard Vernon.  educ. Westminster 1728-33; Trinity, Camb. 1736; L. Inn 1739; Grand Tour (France, with Sir John Hynde Cotton, 4th Bt.) 1739.1  m. Dec. 1743, Lady Henrietta Wentworth, da. of Thomas, 3rd Earl of Strafford, 3s. 5da.  suc. fa. 1732.

Offices Held

Commr. of Excise Dec. 1762- d.

Biography

Vernon was connected with Lord Gower and sat at Lichfield on his interest. At the general election of 1754, ‘upon Lord Gower’s insisting that Lord Trentham should serve for Lichfield’,2 Vernon was put up on the interest of the Duke of Bridgwater at Brackley, and suffered an unexpected defeat. On Lord Trentham succeeding to the peerage, Vernon was returned once more for Lichfield, defeating Sir Henry Every of the country party. In the House he was a regular member of the Bedford party. In 1761 he was returned unopposed on Gower’s interest at Newcastle-under-Lyme. He was included in Fox’s list of Members supporting the peace preliminaries (early in December 1762), and after these divisions was made commissioner of the Excise presumably to make a vacancy for Sir Lawrence Dundas. There is no record of his having spoken in the House.

He died 25 May 1765.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Sir Lewis Namier

Notes

• 1. Walpole to Mann, 17 Nov. 1743.
• 2. Bedford to Duke of Bridgwater, 29 Apr. 1754, Bedford mss 30, f. 40.