Family and Education

b. 28 Feb. 1710, 1st s. of Sir Peter Delmé, gov. of Bank of England, and ld. mayor of London, by his 1st w. Anne, da. of Cornelius Macham of Southampton. m. (1) 12 July 1737, Anna Maria (d. 24 Mar. 1740), da. of Sir John Shaw, 3rd Bt., of Eltham, Kent, s.p.; (2) 20 Aug. 1741, Christian Pain of Eltham, 2s. 2da. suc. fa. 1728.

Offices Held

Biography

Peter Delmé came of a family of French Protestant refugees, who had settled at Norwich in the 16th century. His father, an eminent London merchant, was knighted in 1714 on the accession of George I. His sister, ‘the great fortune in the city’, after being unsuccessfully sought in marriage by the 1st Lord Egmont for his son, Lord Perceval, in 1733, married Sir Henry Liddell, afterwards Lord Ravensworth.1

Returned at Ludgershall in 1734 on the interest of Col. John Selwyn, Delmé voted with the Opposition, contrary to the expectations of the ministry, on the Address at the opening of the new Parliament. Three months later he spoke in favour of a bill to limit the number of officers in the House. Thereafter he continued to vote against the Administration in all recorded divisions, being classed as Opposition in 1747. He transferred to Southampton in 1741, buying the Titchfield estate near the borough in the same year,2 but did not stand again. He died 10 Apr. 1770.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

• 1. Agnew, Protestant Exiles, i. 186-7; HMC Egmont Diary, i. 383 seq.
• 2. HMC Carlisle, 147; Harley Diary, 22 Apr. 1735; VCH Hants, iii. 224.