Family and Education

b. 4 Oct. 1751, s. of Thomas Clarges (d. 1753) by Anne, da. of John Shute, 1st Visct. Barrington [I], and gd.-s. of Sir Thomas Clarges, 2nd Bt. educ. Eton 1765; Ch. Ch. Oxf. 1770. m. 20 Oct. 1777, Louisa, da. of William Skrine, 1s. suc. gd.-fa. as 3rd Bt. 19 Feb. 1759.

Offices Held

Biography

Clarges successfully contested Lincoln at the general election of 1780. In Parliament, ‘convinced of the justice of the American war’, and believing ministerial declarations that America could be recovered, he at first regularly voted with the Administration. But he told the House on 12 June 1781 that he now

saw that success by arms was beyond our reach ... the justice of the war became an object of very little consequence when it was withheld, and we were no longer in a situation to enforce it ... peace, upon almost any terms, was infinitely preferable to a war under such peculiar circumstances: he meant no other avowed or proposed object, but utter ruin of one or both parties, without the most distant prospect of advantage in the event to either.1

Henceforth he consistently voted with the Opposition till the fall of North. His only other reported speech was in favour of Sir John Rous’s motion of no confidence, 15 Mar. 1782.2

Clarges died 23 Dec. 1782.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

• 1. Debrett, iii. 525-6.
• 2. Ibid. vi. 459.