FITZROY, Lord John Edward (1785-1856), of Chapel Street, Audley Square, Mdx.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1812 - 1818
1820 - 1826

Family and Education

b. 24 Sept. 1785, 6th s. of Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, by 2nd w. Elizabeth, da. of Very Rev. Sir Richard Wrottesley, 7th Bt., of Wrottesley, Staffs., dean of Worcester; bro. of Lord William Fitzroy*, half-bro. of Lord Charles Fitzroy I* and George Henry Fitzroy, Earl of Euston*. educ. Harrow 1797-1803; Trinity Coll. Camb. 1803-5. unm.

Offices Held

Biography

Fitzroy replaced his brother William as Member for Thetford on the family interest. On 12 Dec. 1812 he joined Brooks’s Club. In his first Parliament he was, except for a lapse in the last session, a regular if silent supporter of the Whig opposition. (It seems that his manner of speaking excited ridicule.) He voted steadily for Catholic relief in 1813 and in 1815, pairing in 1817. He was in the majority for the sinecure regulation bill, 29 Mar. 1813. From 1815, when he voted against the Regent’s address on the resumption of hostilities with Buonaparte, he voted constantly for retrenchment and against foreign entanglement, obviously associating with the young lions of the Whig Party. He was an opponent of the suspension of habeas corpus and its consequences, February 1817-March 1818. He was one of the eight sporting Whigs who refused to leave Newmarket to vote against the ducal marriage grants in April 1818: he had in 1815 voted against the Duke of Cumberland’s grant. He was back in the House by 24 Apr. and on 3 June 1818 voted for Brougham’s motion for inquiry into the education of the poor. He missed the next Parliament, but came in for the other family seat in 1820. He died 28 Dec. 1856.

Jekyll Letters, 221; Grey mss, Lambton to Grey, 17 Apr. 1818.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes