Family and Education

b. 17 Nov. 1727, 1st s. of Hugh Bethell of Rise and Watton Abbey by Anne, da. of Sir John Cope, 6th Bt., M.P., of Bramshill, Hants and Hanwell, Oxon. educ. Beverley; Sidney Sussex, Camb. 1746. unm. suc. fa. 25 Mar. 1752.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Yorks. 1762-3.

Biography

On 17 Dec. 1760 Rockingham asked Newcastle’s support for his friend Bethell who had declared himself a candidate at Beverley. ‘Lord Granby and I’, he wrote, ‘can either of us answer for the good disposition of Mr. Bethell, and I believe his merit is so well known in Beverley that I suppose every voter will give him one vote.’ But on 20 Dec. Rockingham wrote again:

My friend Bethell has again changed his mind and has now wrote to me that after his having declared himself candidate at Beverley some of his friends there told him he had so often before declared that it was not his intention to stand this election, that they thought he could not now properly alter his mind. Unluckily they prevailed and a good Member of Parliament is lost.1

Bethell was returned in 1768 without a contest. His name does not appear in the division lists of 1769, but on 9 and 25 Jan. 1770 he voted with Opposition over Wilkes and on 13 Feb. 1771 he voted against the Spanish convention. He never spoke in the House.

Bethell died 8 May 1772.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Add. 32916, ff. 158-9, 228.