suc. bro. 24 July 1705 as 6th earl of LEICESTER.
First sat 31 Oct. 1705; last sat 9 May 1735
MP Brackley 1705.
b. 14 Feb. 1680, 2nd surv. s. of Robert Sydney, 4th earl of Leicester, and Elizabeth, da. of John Egerton, 2nd earl of Bridgwater; bro. of Philip Sydney, 5th earl of Leicester. educ. unknown. unm. KB 27 May 1725. d. 27 Sept. 1737; will 10 May, pr. 1 Oct.–3 Nov. 1737.1
PC 1731; ld. of the bedchamber 1717–27; ld. warden of Cinque Ports 1717–28; capt. yeoman of the gd. 1725–31; constable, Tower of London 1731–d.
Ld. lt. Kent 1724–d.; high steward, Otford 1731–d.
Ensign 1st Ft. Gds. 1696, brevet lt. col. 1702–5.
Associated with: Penshurst, Kent; Leicester House, London; 15 Queen Anne’s Gate, London (1713).
Likenesses: oil on canvas by Joseph Highmore, 1728, Manchester City Art Galleries.
Like his brother the 5th earl, John Sydney was a relatively inactive parliamentarian. A younger son who went straight into the army at the age of 16, he had served under John Churchill, duke of Marlborough, and became a close associate of James Stanhope†, later Earl Stanhope, with whom he served in Europe.2 At the death of his great-uncle Henry Sydney, earl of Romney, Sydney was the principal beneficiary of Romney’s £40,000 estate.3 His obligations as executor kept him in England during the summer of 1704 (for which he had to ask Marlborough for extended leave of absence) and he was subsequently sought out by his cousin Scroop Egerton, 4th earl (later duke) of Bridgwater, to stand on the Bridgwater interest in the Northamptonshire borough of Brackley, where on 12 May 1705 he was returned with his uncle Charles Egerton‡. Charles Spencer, 3rd earl of Sunderland, to whom Sydney was also related, marked their joint election as a gain for the Whigs In the event, Sydney was never able to take his seat in the Commons: his older brother’s sudden death meant that he was summoned instead to the House of Lords.4
On 31 Oct. 1705, six days after the opening of Parliament, the new earl of Leicester took his seat in the Lords. During his first session, he attended nearly 44 per cent of sittings. His parliamentary career up to 1715 was lacklustre: he attended all 11 sessions up to the accession of the Hanoverians, but none for even half of all sittings. For seven sessions, he attended less than a third of the time, often for only a handful of sitting days. On 12 Nov. 1705 it was noted at a call of the House that he was excused attendance, but he was in the House for the ‘Church in danger’ debate on 6 December. He attended sporadically during the spring months until 18 Mar. 1706, the day before the prorogation. He was next in the House on 3 Dec. 1706 for the start of a new session and attended thereafter for 45 per cent of sittings, missing the final week of the session before the prorogation of 8 Apr. 1707. He attended only three sittings in the brief April 1707 session. In August 1706 he petitioned, unsuccessfully, for the stewardship of Otford.5
Leicester attended the House for the start of the first Parliament of Great Britain on 23 Oct. 1707; thereafter he was present for 47 per cent of sittings. In a rare glimpse into his involvement in parliamentary business, the Journal records that on 8 Jan. 1708 he reported from the select committee on the naturalization of Katherine Clerke, daughter of Sir William Clerke deceased and sister of Sir John Clerke‡ of Shabbington. There was a clear personal interest in this piece of legislation, since Katherine Clerke was cousin to his brother Philip’s widow.6 Following the dissolution of Parliament in April, Leicester was marked in a printed list as a ‘Whig’ of otherwise uncertain conviction. He was at Westminster for the opening of Parliament on 16 Nov. 1708 and attended the session for 29 per cent of sittings. He was present on 21 Jan. 1709 for the contentious vote on whether a peer of Scotland who sat in the House by virtue of a British title created since the Union could vote in the election of representative peers. He voted in favour (against the Junto), unlike the Whigs with whom he dined three days later hosted by Charles Powlett, 2nd duke of Bolton.7
On 30 Mar. 1709 Leicester signed the declaration against the Tack and continued to attend the House sporadically until the penultimate day of the session. He was back at the House on 15 Nov. 1709 for the start of the subsequent session and attended for nearly two-fifths of all sittings. On 27 Feb. 1710 he was present for the start of the Sacheverell trial and attended throughout the trial until 22 Mar., finding Sacheverell guilty in the division on the 20th.
There is little evidence of his activity after the dissolution, apart from correspondence with Marlborough on military affairs.8 He arrived in London the week before the opening of the new Parliament.9 Following the Tory landslide in the elections, he was unsurprisingly forecast as an opponent of the new ministry led by Robert Harley, later earl of Oxford. Leicester attended the House on 25 Nov. 1710 for the start of the new Parliament and was present for 26 per cent of sittings. He proved to be a firm supporter both of the duumvirs themselves and of the previous ministry. In divisions on the war in Spain on 11 Jan. 1711 he registered protests against the Lords’ rejection of the petitions of Henri de Ruvigny, earl of Galway [I], and Charles O’Hara, Baron Tyrawley [I], and against the resolution that defeat at Almanza was due to their military advice and that of his friend Stanhope. The following day he again protested against the censure of the ministers for having approved a military offensive in Spain. On 14 May 1711 he attended the session for the last time.
Leicester was present on 7 Dec. 1711 for the start of business and the division on the ‘no peace without Spain’ address. He attended for 22 per cent of sittings, all concentrated in the first three months of the session. On 10 Dec. 1711 his name appeared on one of Oxford’s lists of office-holders and pensioners who had voted against the ministry in the ‘no peace without Spain’ division, although it was subsequently erased by Oxford (without any accompanying comment). He was forecast as being opposed to allowing James Hamilton*, 4th duke of Hamilton [S], to sit as duke of Brandon, and (in contrast to his ambivalent behaviour in January 1709) on 20 Dec. voted that no Scottish peer at the time of the Union could sit in the Lords by right of a British title created after the Union. Given the volatile partisan context, he conscientiously registered his proxy on two occasions in favour of Bridgwater: on 30 Dec. 1711 (vacated with his attendance on 14 Jan. 1712) and again on 23 Feb. 1712 (vacated on 4 March). He attended the session for the last time on 28 Mar. 1712. The following day he registered his proxy in favour of Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun.
Back at Westminster on 9 Apr. 1713 for the first day of the next session, Leicester attended thereafter for one-quarter of all sittings. By 13 June 1713 he was estimated by Oxford as a certain opponent of the bill confirming the eighth and ninth articles of the French commercial treaty. He attended the session sparingly until the prorogation on 16 July 1713. Missing the first two weeks of the new Parliament, he arrived at the House on 2 Mar. 1714, but attended the session for only four sittings (5 per cent of the total). On 8 Mar. he registered his proxy in favour of Sunderland. It is likely that Sunderland used the proxy on 5 Apr. for the crucial party vote on the wording of the address to the queen.
During May 1714, Leicester was forecast by Daniel Finch, 2nd earl of Nottingham, as an opponent of the Schism bill. On 1 June, almost certainly for an imminent division on the bill, he registered his proxy in favour of Edward Russell, earl of Orford (vacated at the end of the session). It is likely that Orford employed Leicester’s proxy on 11 and 15 June 1714 in divisions on extending the bill to Ireland and for the measure to pass the House.10
Leicester attended only two sittings of the brief session that met in the wake of Queen Anne’s death, and on 5 Aug. 1714 registered his proxy in favour of Henry Clinton, 7th earl of Lincoln. It was vacated at the end of the session. Leicester’s largely ceremonial role during the next two reigns began on 20 Oct. 1714, when he was cupbearer at the coronation of George I. His political and parliamentary career beyond 1715 will be examined in the next phase of this work.
On 27 Sept. 1737, Leicester died at the family seat of Penshurst. His will, which confirmed existing property arrangements, made specific (and generous) provision for Susanna Arnold (alias Drake) with whom he had shared his home for ‘many years’. Leaving her £5,000 and an annuity of £200, he also discharged her from any debt for her ‘board’. He provided generously for his nephew Thomas Sydney, his servants and his ‘Indian boy’. His executors were Sir Thomas Reade‡ (once a suitor for the hand of his sister) and Reade’s younger brother, Colonel George Reade‡. Leicester’s residuary legatee was his brother Jocelyn Sidney†, who succeeded him in the peerage.
B.A./R.P.- 1 TNA, PROB 11/685.
- 2 HP Commons, 1690–1715, v. 605–6.
- 3 Ibid.; CTB, xxiii. 438–52, 650–73.
- 4 HP Commons, 1690–1715, ii. 433–7, v. 605–6.
- 5 CTB, xx. 729–43, 753–72.
- 6 Huguenot Soc. xxvii. 61.
- 7 HR, lv, 210; TNA, C104/113, pt. 2, 24 Jan. 1709.
- 8 Add. 61289, f. 139.
- 9 Bodl. Ballard 18, ff. 53–54.
- 10 Nicolson, London Diaries, 612.