Family and Education

b. 13 Aug. 1791, 5th s. of Brownlow Cust^†, 1st Baron Brownlow, by 2nd w., and bro. of Hon. Edward Cust, Hon. John Cust*, and Hon. William Cust*. m. (1) 9 Oct. 1823, Lady Isabella Mary Montagu Scott (d. 9 Oct. 1829), da. of Charles William Montagu Scott*, 4th Duke of Buccleuch [S], 3s. 2da.; (2) 15 Jan. 1833, Hon. Sophia Mary Townshend (d. 6 Dec. 1852), da. of John Thomas Townshend*, 2nd Visct. Sydney, s.p.; (3) 20 Aug. 1860, Frances, da. of Charles Steer of Chichester, Suss., wid. of Augustus Frederick Keppel^†, 5th Earl of Albemarle, s.p.

Offices Held

Cornet 3 Drag. Gds. 1808, lt. 1810; capt. 60 Ft. 1811, 3 Drag. Gds. 1812, half-pay 1814-15; capt. 3 Drag. Gds. 1815, half-pay 1816, lt.-col. (ret.) 1846.

Biography

Cust served in the Peninsula from 1809 until 1814, when he went on half-pay. Four years later, on the hustings at the venal borough of Honiton, whither he was directed by government, he proclaimed himself ‘no placeman or pensioner’, but a soldier ‘educated in the principles of the established church’, who had fought at Waterloo.1 Accounts of his war service in the Army Lists do not substantiate the latter claim; but he did resume his commission for a brief period in June 1815 and may have been at Waterloo as a volunteer.

He topped the poll at Honiton and in the House followed the family line and supported government, voting with them against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May, for the foreign enlistment bill, 10 June, and for the banishment clause of the blasphemous libels bill, 23 Dec. 1819. He is not known to have spoken in the House during the 1818 Parliament. On 29 Feb. 1820 Lord Sidmouth, the Home secretary, having heard that Cust was to be opposed at Honiton, wrote on his behalf to Christopher Flood, one of the local attorneys who managed elections in the borough:

at all times and particularly in such times as the present it is highly desirable that every facility and encouragement should be given to such men as Mr Cust to contribute all the aid which can be desired from their principles and character to uphold the constitution of the country in church and state.2

Cust died 15 Sept. 1873.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: P. A. Symonds

Notes

• 1. The Late Elections (1818), 145.
• 2. Sidmouth mss.