COMPTON, George (1664-1727)

COMPTON, George (1664–1727)

styled 1664-81 Ld. Compton; suc. fa. 15 Dec. 1681 (a minor) as 4th earl of NORTHAMPTON

First sat 22 Jan. 1689; last sat 23 May 1726

b. 18 Oct. 1664, 4th but 1st surv. s. of James Compton, 3rd earl of Northampton and 2nd w. Mary, da. of Baptist Noel, 3rd Visct. Campden; bro. of Spencer Compton, later earl of Wilmington. educ. Christ Church, Oxf. 1679-82, MA 1682; travelled abroad (France,1 Low Countries) 1682-5.2 m. (1) 9 May 1686 (with £16,000 or £20,000),3 Jane (d.1721), da. of Sir Stephen Fox‡ of Farley, Wilts. 4s. (1 d.v.p) 6da.;4 (2) 3 July 1726, Elizabeth (d.1750), wid. of Sir George Thorold, 1st bt., da. of Sir James Rushout‡, 1st bt. s.p. d. 13 Apr. 1727; will 1 Feb. to 20 Mar., pr. 3 May 1727.5

Master of the leash 1682; PC 21 May 1702-20 May 1707, 13 Dec. 1712-16 Nov. 1714;6 constable of the Tower of London 1712-15; ld. sewer, coronation of George I, Oct. 1714.

Ld. lt. Warws. 1686-7, 1689-1715; recorder Northampton bef. 1692-d.7

Associated with: Castle Ashby, Northants.;8 Compton Wynyates, Warws. and Bloomsbury Square, Mdx.9

Described by Macky as ‘a very honest gentleman’, though one that ‘will never make any great figure, but in his own house’, Compton succeeded both to the earldom of Northampton and his father’s lieutenancy of Warwickshire while still underage.10 His father’s eldest son with his second wife, Compton only succeeded to the title in 1681 as a result of the deaths of his three elder half-brothers: two in their infancy and one (William, styled Lord Compton) at the age of eight. During his minority provision was made for the lieutenancy to be exercised by Edward Conway, earl of Conway, and (after Conway’s death in 1683) by Robert Spencer, 2nd earl of Sunderland. In February 1682 Northampton was appointed master of the leash, but rumours that he was to succeed Prince Rupert, duke of Cumberland, as a garter knight in December proved to be unfounded.11

In spite of the powerful interest of his uncle, Henry Compton, bishop of London, negotiations for Northampton to marry the recently widowed dowager countess of Conway broke down in December 1685.12 The failure of the suit may have been related to the bishop’s reduced interest after his removal from his places at court but at least one source reported that Northampton himself was the cause of the rupture and that he had pretended ‘himself sick a purpose to delay the marriage with a design to break it quite off’. Another reported to the contrary that Northampton ‘thought himself very ill used’ over the affair and sent Lady Conway’s guardian a challenge for the affront, which was refused.13 The episode undoubtedly created a stir. Whatever the true cause, and in spite of another rumour in the spring of 1686 that Northampton was to marry the daughter of Henry Cavendish, duke of Newcastle, later that year he married the daughter of the influential financier, Sir Stephen Fox‡ instead.14 In August he was one of several members of the Compton family to support Bishop Compton at his hearing before the ecclesiastical commission.15 The bishop was thereafter a frequent visitor at Northampton’s seat at Castle Ashby.16 The same year (1686) Northampton assumed control of his lieutenancy.

James II and the Revolution

In January 1687 Northampton was forecast as an opponent of repealing the Test and in May he was also included in a list of those opposed to the king’s policies. His concerns did not prevent him from taking the lead in the welcome offered to the king by the gentry of Warwickshire during his tour in the late summer but the following month, unwilling to put the three questions in his lieutenancy, Northampton wrote in an effort to justify himself. He explained that he hoped that he:

had satisfied his majesty with the answer I gave and am very sorry the king should propose anything to me wherein I can not show my ready compliance … these are points of so high a nature, that I cannot take any resolution until I have heard them argued in the place, where I have never had as yet the honour to sit.17

The following month Northampton was again assessed as opposed to the Test and, as a result of his refusal to put the three questions he was removed from his lieutenancy in favour of his rival, Sunderland.18

Northampton again featured on a list of the opposition peers in January 1688 and the same month he was included in a further assessment of those opposed to the repeal of the Test. In March he moved to his new London residence in Bloomsbury Square, where he appears to have remained until the summer, unwilling to leave town while his debts there remained unsettled.19

Northampton was among the first to mobilize in favour of the revolution in the winter of 1688 (presumably through his uncle’s influence) and he played host to Princess Anne at Castle Ashby on her journey north. He then accompanied her to Nottingham.20 From there he sent to his former deputies in Warwickshire requesting them to raise the militia, ‘which I desire you would do with all the expedition conveniently may be.’21 Northampton’s assurance of their willingness to obey his orders had no doubt been boosted by his receipt in October of correspondence between Sunderland and the Warwickshire deputies, in which the latter had professed their unwillingness to act according to Sunderland’s directions.22 On the princess’s subsequent entrance into Oxford following the king’s flight, Northampton and Bishop Compton were prominent members of her entourage, each leading a troop of horse.23

Northampton had returned to London by the latter stages of December and was present at the meeting of the provisional government that convened in the queen’s presence chamber at St James’s Palace on 21 December. He then attended three subsequent sessions held in the Lords.24 He took his seat in the Convention on 22 Jan. 1689 and the following day was named to the committees for privileges and petitions. Present on approximately 67 per cent of all sitting days, he was named to a further seven committees in the course of the session. On 31 Jan. he voted in favour of inserting the words declaring William and Mary king and queen and entered his dissent at the resolution not to concur with the Commons in using the words ‘that the throne is thereby vacant.’ On 4 Feb. he voted to concur with the Commons’ use of the word ‘abdicated’ and two days later (6 Feb.) he again voted to agree with the Commons in their employment of the word ‘abdicated’ and ‘that the throne is thereby vacant.’ On 12 Feb. Northampton was named one of the managers of a conference with the Commons concerning the proclamation. The following month he was reappointed to the lieutenancy of Warwickshire. On 6 Mar. he subscribed the protest at the resolution to pass the trial of peers bill, and on 18 Mar. he received the proxy of the weak-minded William Fiennes, 3rd Viscount Saye and Sele, which was vacated by the close of the session. Northampton carried the sceptre at William and Mary’s coronation on 11 Apr. after which he sat for a further seven days before registering his own proxy with James Butler, 2nd duke of Ormond, on 22 Apr., perhaps to be employed in the division on the abrogating oaths bill the following day. The proxy was vacated by his resumption of his seat on 13 May. He continued to be active in the House’s business throughout, most notably over the passing of the bill for reversing the perjury judgments against Titus Oates. On 2 July Northampton acted as one of the tellers on the question of whether to refer the impeachments of Blair, Vaughan and others to the judges, subscribing the protest at the resolution to proceed with the impeachments. A week later (9 July) he acted as one of the tellers for the motion whether to adjourn the debate over the reversal of the judgments against Oates, and on 22 July he was again one of the tellers on the question of whether to proceed with the report of the conference concerning the Oates bill. On 24 July Northampton acted as a teller on the question of insisting on the amendments to the bill and on 30 July he voted in favour of adhering to the Lords’ amendments.

In the interval following the close of the first session of the Convention, Northampton responded to a demand for a self-assessment of his personal estate for tax purposes, in which he declared himself ‘willing to be assessed at two thousand pounds.’25 He took his seat in the second session of the Convention on 28 Oct. 1689. Although he was present on 63 per cent of all sitting days, he was named to just two committees in the course of the session. On 9 Nov. he was entrusted once more with Saye and Sele’s proxy, which was vacated at the dissolution. In a list prepared between October 1689 and February 1690 Thomas Osborne, marquess of Carmarthen (and later duke of Leeds), classed him among the supporters of the court and added that he was to be spoken to.

In spite of his influential position in both Northamptonshire and Warwickshire, in the face of broad hostility to Tory candidates Northampton was unable to bring his interest to bear successfully during the ensuing elections for the new Parliament. Daniel Finch, 2nd earl of Nottingham, reported that Northampton intended to set up his kinsman, Hatton Compton, for Northamptonshire but in the event the Whigs, Sir St Andrew St John‡ and John Parkhurst‡, appear to have been returned without a contest.26 The town of Northampton also proved difficult and Northampton’s candidate there, Sir Justinian Isham‡, was beaten into third place by his two Whig rivals.27 Although unable to exert sufficient interest to secure the return of the unpopular Isham for the borough, Northampton’s influence in the town remained important and in advance of the new Parliament, he received a petition from the mayor and aldermen of Northampton that he employ his interest in protecting them from the provisions of a prospective bill to disable those who had been involved in surrendering charters:

since your lordship has honoured us with your patronage, you will forgive us if we humbly represent to your lordship our sense in this matter. That although we are conscious of our past demerit in being concerned in an affair so mischievous in its design, yet the specious pretences by which it was insinuated to some and the threatenings and fears by which others of us were made easy in that affair, and considering the condition of affairs at that time we hope will be allowed in part of an excuse.28

The corporation of Northampton again appealed for Northampton’s assistance a few days later, when they requested his aid in the disputed choice of a new minister for the parish of All Saints. Northampton undertook to represent the matter to his uncle, Bishop Compton.29

The 1690 Parliament

Northampton took his seat at the opening of the new Parliament on 20 Mar. 1690 after which he was present on half of all sitting days and was named to three committees. Absent from the session after 26 Apr., on 6 May he registered his proxy with Nottingham, which may have been intended to be used during the numerous divisions on the City of London bill between 10 and 14 May. The reason for his absence from the closing weeks of the session is unclear but might have been on account of his duties in Warwickshire from whence he reported the state of the militia in July.30 He returned to the House for the second session on 23 Oct. 1690 during which he was present on 46 per cent of all sitting days and was named to seven committees. He was back in the House for the third session on 30 Oct. 1691. Excused at a call on 2 Nov. he resumed his seat on 30 Nov. after which he was present on approximately half of all sitting days, during which he was named to two committees. In January 1692 Northampton was again appealed to by the corporation of Northampton, seeking his interest as their ‘worthy recorder’ in supporting the passage of the alnage bill in which he was also requested to co-ordinate his actions in the House with the county’s other peers.31 The summer brought fears of invasion, causing Sir Stephen Fox to write to his son-in-law, ‘I do not wonder that you are all alarmed in the country when every day gives occasion of suspicion here.’32 Northampton took his seat in the fourth session on 4 Nov. 1692 and on 31 Dec. he voted in favour of committing the place bill. On 1 Jan. 1693 he was forecast as being in favour of passing the bill enabling Henry Howard, 7th duke of Norfolk, to divorce and on 3 Jan. he voted in favour of passing the place bill. On 4 Feb. he found Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun, not guilty of murder. He was also mentioned in the course of the session as one of several peers (among them his uncle, Bishop Compton, and kinsman, Charles Sackville, 6th earl of Dorset), likely to be supportive of a petition lodged in the House by Anne, Lady Fitch, widow of Sir Thomas Fitch for the reversal of a chancery decree.33 Lady Fitch’s petition was dismissed on 3 March.

During the summer Northampton was engaged in attending to his estates under the critical gaze of his father-in-law, who complimented him on making ‘an advance in letting as much of your land as Mr Middleton will give leave to be let.’ Premature news of the death of the ailing John Lovelace, 3rd Baron Lovelace, in July encouraged Fox to approach the queen on Northampton’s behalf for the succession to one of Lovelace’s offices (probably that of chief justice in eyre Trent south). Although Fox was among the first to petition, the queen cautioned him that he was one of many, leading him to advise Northampton that he ‘should be prepared for a disappointment.’34 The advice proved to be salutary and on Lovelace’s death two months later, the office of chief justice went to James Bertie, earl of Abingdon, while Lovelace’s captaincy of the gentlemen pensioners went to Charles Beauclerk, duke of St Albans.35

Northampton took his seat in the new session on 7 Nov. 1693, after which he was present on approximately 62 per cent of all sitting days. Named to the privileges committee on the opening day, he was nominated to a further seven committees during the course of the session. The death of Sir Thomas Samwell‡, Member for Northampton, in February 1694 triggered a by-election in the town, where once again Northampton’s interest as recorder proved significant. Having initially intended to support Christopher Montagu‡, Northampton was obliged to redirect his interest in favour of Sir Justiniam Isham, who claimed a prior undertaking.36 Once he had settled on Isham, Northampton exercised his interest effectively to secure his return unchallenged.37 Writing to the mayor and aldermen of the town, Northampton urged their support for:

a person every way so well qualified for it … he was early in this happy revolution, he is a very worthy honest gentleman and has a sufficient stake in the country, all which you very well know: and therefore I do earnestly desire your assistance in promoting his interest.38

In accordance with Northampton’s desires, and after having been assured that Montagu had laid aside his intention to stand, the corporation duly backed Isham.39

Northampton’s countess was the victim of a robbery while staying at Copt Hall (seat of his cousin, Dorset) in the early autumn of 1694.40 Her travails may have been the reason for Northampton’s absence from the House at the opening of the ensuing session and he was excused at a call on 26 Nov. 1694. The death of Queen Mary in December proved the occasion of another appeal from the corporation of Northampton in January 1695 that he would introduce a delegation from the town to the king with their loyal address.41 It was presumably in response to this that he finally returned to London, taking his seat in the House on 1 Feb. after which he was present on 22 per cent of all sitting days during which he was named to just two committees.

Following the dissolution Northampton’s brother, Spencer Compton, stood unsuccessfully for East Grinstead in the 1695 general election on Dorset’s interest but there is no reason to believe that Northampton exerted himself on his brother’s account. Spencer Compton and Northampton were on very poor terms following a violent disagreement and the feud had propelled Compton towards the Whigs and away from his traditionally Tory family.42 Northampton played host to the king at Castle Ashby in October. The event was said to have pleased King William so much that he informed Lady Northampton that he intended to make his visit an annual event.43

The Parliaments of 1695-1701

Northampton took his seat in the new Parliament on 9 Dec. 1695. Present for just under 70 per cent of all sitting days, on 1 Jan. 1696 he was named to the committee for Lord Francis Powlett’s bill and on 29 Feb. he signed the Association. A further royal visit to Northamptonshire in March required the mayor and aldermen of Northampton to write in abject terms to Northampton when they accepted an invitation to wait on the king at Althorp, Sunderland’s seat, not realizing that Northampton had intended to present them to the king himself at Castle Ashby. Their embarrassment proved all the more acute when they discovered Northampton also present in the party at Althorp.44

Northampton faced difficulties of a different kind in Warwickshire. The unwillingness of four of his deputies to sign the Association in the summer of 1696 caused them to resign their commissions in anticipation of their imminent removal.45 Urging them to reconsider, Northampton attempted to persuade them to consider the good of the county over their individual consciences:

I do not doubt but you have thoroughly considered it, therefore shall not repeat what I have formerly said to you upon this subject; but am sorry that you still persist in the same mind, and that you will not consider your own and country’s good, but leave them both exposed to the pleasure and disposal of other men; and though you have now forsaken me I shall not forsake you.46

Despite his injunction that the deputies should toe the government line if at all possible, Northampton was himself reprimanded by the council in August for failing to supply a return of those members of his lieutenancy that had taken the Association.47 Northampton’s initial response failed to satisfy them, ‘it not appearing thereby when and where the deputy lieutenants, militia officers and justices of the peace signed the voluntary association.’ Correspondence continued between Northampton and the board on the subject until at least February of the following year.48

Northampton took his seat in the next session on 9 Nov. 1696 after which he was present on just under 60 per cent of all sitting days. Named to 11 committees in the course of the session, on 18 Dec. he registered his dissent at the resolution to read the bill of attainder of Sir John Fenwick‡ a second time. On 23 Dec. he voted against passing the bill and the same day he subscribed the protest at the resolution to attaint Fenwick. The passage of the leather bill in April of the following year was presumably the occasion of Northampton receiving a petition from the shoemakers of the town of Northampton, who sought his interest to represent their complaints against the measure.49

Northampton returned to the House for the following session on 3 Dec. 1697 when he introduced Edward Villiers, Viscount Villiers, as earl of Jersey. Named to 31 committees in the course of the session, of which he attended 63 per cent of all sitting days, on 15 Mar. he voted against committing the bill to punish Charles Duncombe‡. On 22 Mar. the House considered a case of breach of privilege committed by Joseph Wilson and others in contravention of Northampton’s fishing rights. The case was referred to the committee for privileges and on 18 Apr. the matter was resolved in Northampton’s favour. Northampton failed to sit after 24 June but on 30 June he registered his proxy with Sidney Godolphin, Baron (later earl of) Godolphin.

Having taken his seat in the new Parliament on 31 Jan. 1699, Northampton proceeded to attend on 15 per cent of all sitting days but he was named to just two committees in the course of the session. His attendance increased slightly in the ensuing session. He returned to the House on 27 Jan. 1700 and was thereafter present for approximately a third of the session during which he was named to three committees. On 8 Feb. he acted as teller for the contents on the question of whether to agree to the resolution concerning the Scots settlement at Darien, and on 23 Feb. he voted against adjourning the House into a committee of the whole for consideration of the bill for continuing the East India Company as a corporation.

In anticipation of the first general election of 1701 Sir John Mordaunt‡ sought Northampton’s support for his return for Warwickshire in partnership with Sir Charles Shuckborough‡, undertaking not to send to any freeholder until they had secured Northampton’s approbation. Following a county meeting, the two were returned unopposed.50 Affairs in Warwickshire continued to require Northampton’s attention when the terminal sickness of the clerk of the peace for the county led to Northampton being approached by several Warwickshire notables in support of potential successors during the spring.51

Northampton took his seat in the new Parliament on 3 May 1701 but attended on just 14 per cent of all sitting days during which he was named to three committees. Following the dissolution, Mordaunt and Shuckborough were again returned for Warwickshire in the second general election of that year.52 It may have been at this time that Northampton was constrained to refer another request from the corporation of Northampton to the lord president (Thomas Herbert, 8th earl of Pembroke). Pleading ‘some business extraordinary’ caused by the dissolution, he asked that Pembroke would allow the mayor and deputy recorder to wait on him with the town’s address and facilitate an audience with the king.53 Northampton took his seat in the new Parliament on 30 Dec. after which he attended on 65 per cent of all sitting days. On 20 Feb. 1702 he was one of 15 members of the House (among them his uncle, Bishop Compton) to subscribe the protest at the resolution to pass the bill of attainder against James II’s queen, Mary Beatrice.

The reign of Anne to 1710

The death of William III promised Northampton and his kinsmen greater opportunities for advancement. In May Northampton was appointed to the Privy Council. He took his seat in the new Parliament on 20 Oct. 1702. In November it was discoursed that he was to play host to the queen’s husband, Prince George, who sat in the House as duke of Cumberland, and who was in need of a rural retreat for his convalescence.54 On 1 Jan. 1703 Northampton was estimated by Nottingham as being in favour of the occasional conformity bill and on 16 Jan. he duly voted against adhering to the Lords’ amendment to the penalty clause. In advance of the second session he was again forecast as being in favour of the occasional conformity bill in two lists compiled by Charles Spencer, 3rd earl of Sunderland. He took his seat on 7 Dec. and on 14 Dec. he was included in a list of those who had voted in favour of the bill. The same day (14 Dec.) he registered his dissent at the resolution to reject the bill. Northampton registered a further dissent on 14 Jan. 1704 at the resolution to reverse the judgment in the writ of error in the case of Ashby v. White. He was included in a list of Members of both Houses drawn up by Nottingham in 1704, perhaps indicating support over the Scotch Plot; and on 1 Mar. he acted as one of the tellers on the question of whether to retain the words insisting on a confession in an address for the pardon of James Boucher, who had been implicated in the plot. Despite this, when the motion was carried, Northampton again registered his dissent. The following day he attempted to mediate in a dispute in train between Mr Ward and ‘Lord Leinster’ (probably his Northamptonshire neighbour, William Fermor, Baron Leominster).55 On 3 Mar. he registered a further dissent at the resolution to reveal the key to the Gibberish letters only to the queen and those lords who were members of the committee examining the Scotch Plot. Northampton took his seat in the ensuing session on 31 Oct. 1704, after which he was present on 29 per cent of all sitting days. On 1 Nov. he was listed as a likely supporter of the Tack but he was absent from the House from 9 Nov. until 12 Feb. 1705. During his absence he entrusted his proxy to Lawrence Hyde, earl of Rochester.

Although Northampton was marked as a Jacobite in an analysis of the peerage of 13 Apr. 1705, there seems little reason to suspect that he was an active supporter of the exiled royal house. He took his seat in the new Parliament on 25 Oct. but sat for just two days before absenting himself for almost a month and on 12 Nov. he was excused at a call of the House. He resumed his seat on 19 Nov. and on 30 Nov. he registered his dissent at the resolution to give no further instructions to the committee of the whole considering the bill for securing the Protestant succession. Northampton subscribed a series of protests on 3 Dec. concerning the resolution not to read riders to the bill limiting the power of the lords justices, and on 6 Dec. he subscribed the protest at the resolution to agree with the committee that the church was not in danger. Northampton registered three more dissents on 31 Jan. 1706 in protest at resolutions concerning the bill for securing the Protestant succession, and on 9 Mar. he dissented once more at the resolution to agree with the Commons that Gwynne’s letter to Thomas Grey, 2nd earl of Stamford, was a ‘scandalous false and malicious libel.’ On 12 Mar. 1706 he acted as one of the tellers on the question of whether to agree to the wording of an address concerning the colony of Carolina, which was reported to the House by his Northamptonshire neighbour, Sunderland.

Northampton took his seat in the ensuing session on 10 Dec. 1706. On 3 Feb. 1707 he subscribed the protest at the resolution not to instruct the committee of the whole considering the bill for securing the Church of England to insert a clause declaring the 1673 Test Act to be ‘perpetual and unalterable’. On 4 Mar. 1707 he voted in favour of giving a second reading to the rider declaring that nothing in the Union bill should be construed as an acknowledgement of the truth of Presbyterianism. He then registered his dissent when the motion to read the rider was defeated. The same day he dissented once more at the resolution to pass the Union bill. Northampton attended for eight days of the brief fifteen-day session of April 1707. On 23 Apr. he registered his dissent at the resolution to consider the judges’ refusal to offer an answer to the question of whether existing laws were sufficient to prevent frauds concerning duties on East India goods the following day. He was omitted from the Privy Council in May but returned to the House for the new Parliament of Great Britain on 6 Nov. 1707, after which he was present for just under 19 per cent of all sitting days.

News of the anticipated Jacobite incursion in the spring of 1708 found Northampton again preoccupied with lieutenancy affairs as his officers furnished him with precedents from the rebellion of James Scott, duke of Monmouth, to help him with his mobilization of the Warwickshire militia.56 Marked a Tory in a list of party classifications of May, Northampton returned to the House for the new Parliament on 16 Dec. 1708 and on 21 Jan. 1709 he voted against permitting Scots peers with British titles from voting in the election of Scots representative peers.

The spring of 1709 found Northampton criticized for providing his daughter, Mary, with only £6,000 by way of portion on her marriage to the wealthy merchant and director of the Bank of England, William Gore‡. Gore was later a member of the October Club and the alliance perhaps indicates something of Northampton’s political inclinations at the time as well as the limitations of his fortune, though Lady Mary’s equipage on her arrival at her new home in Tring was said to be ‘the envy … of the ladies’.57 Northampton took his seat in the ensuing session on 24 Nov. 1709. On 16 Feb. 1710 he set his name to dissents in response to the resolutions to concur with the Commons’ address requesting that the queen despatch John Churchill, duke of Marlborough, to Holland at once, at that not to require Greenshields to attend the House before his appeal was received and at the resolution not to adjourn. On 14 Mar. he subscribed the protest at the resolution that it was not necessary to include in an impeachment the particular words deemed criminal and dissented when it was resolved not to adjourn the House. Two days later he subscribed the protest at the resolution that the Commons had made good the first article of impeachment against Dr Sacheverell, and the following day (17 Mar.), he subscribed the subsequent protest at the resolution that the Commons had made good the second, third and fourth articles. On 18 Mar. he protested once more at the resolution to limit peers to a single verdict of guilty or not guilty, and on 20 Mar. 1710 he found Henry Sacheverell not guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours. He then registered his dissent at the guilty verdict. The following day he registered a final dissent in the matter, at the resolution to pass the censure against the doctor.

The Ministry of Harley

Following the dissolution Northampton was again active in the elections for Warwickshire, where Sir John Mordaunt joined with Northampton’s heir, James Compton, styled Lord Compton (later 5th earl of Northampton).58 In September Robert Harley, later earl of Oxford, listed Northampton as a peer to be provided for and on 3 Oct. he was noted by Harley as a likely supporter. Northampton took his seat in the new Parliament on 25 Nov. after which he was present on almost 87 per cent of all sitting days. On 4 May 1711 he wrote to Harley offering his services, ‘the sessions of Parliament now drawing to an end’ eager ‘to know in what I can be serviceable to her majesty if I can obtain that honour.’59 Clearly irked that his former service to the queen was slow in being recognized, Northampton wrote again on 17 May reminding Harley that:

the assurance you give me in your letter that I have the happiness to be in your thoughts, makes me presume to acquaint you that all those lords who had the honour to wait upon her majesty at the Revolution have received some mark of the queen’s favour, except myself; I do not know that in the late reign or in this I ever neglected any opportunity wherein I could be serviceable to her majesty, which makes me hope that distinguishing mark shall not always be.60

The same month (May) Northampton employed his own interest to recommend one Mr Gostelowe to Henry Paget, later earl of Uxbridge, to a place in the leather office.61 Northampton was noted as a Tory patriot in June. The same month his uncle, Bishop Compton, added his weight to Northampton’s quest for a place, writing to Oxford (as Harley had now become) to:

pardon my importunity in behalf of my Lord Northampton, who was with me yesterday to tell me he was going down into the country. I found him a little uneasy, that after so constant a service as he has paid to her majesty and her interest, he should see so many rewarded, and himself yet left in the dark. I beseech you therefore to put him out of pain so soon as you can prevail with the queen to declare her pleasure.62

In advance of the new session, William Bromley‡ conveyed a blank proxy form from Edward Leigh, Baron Leigh, to Oxford requesting that he fill it with the names of Northampton, Nottingham or Thomas Thynne, Viscount Weymouth.63 On 1 Dec. the proxy was duly registered with Northampton and the same day Northampton was noted by Oxford as being a supporter of the ministry. The following day Northampton’s name was included on a list of those to be contacted concerning ‘No Peace without Spain’. Northampton returned to the House on 7 Dec. 1711, after which he was present for almost 79 per cent of all sitting days. The same month he was reappointed to the Privy Council. Despite being included in a forecast of 8 Dec. among those that might desert the ministry in the division on ‘No Peace without Spain’, on 10 Dec. he proved loyal to Oxford. Later that month he was noted as being a possible opponent of permitting James Hamilton, 4th duke of Hamilton [S], to take his seat in the House as duke of Brandon but on 20 Dec. he voted in favour of permitting Scots peers to sit by virtue of post-Union British peerages.

Despite his loyalty to the ministry during the session, there is evidence that Northampton’s patience was flagging. He told Oxford that it was:

a great honour to be in your thoughts, and [I] am very sensible of the trouble I have given your lordship; if I could have obtained the favour to have known what her majesty designs for me, I should have ordered my affairs accordingly, but the long delays and uncertainty obliges me to go into the country.64

Northampton’s patience may have been on the wane but on 28 Dec. 1711 his son, James, was summoned to the House by a writ of acceleration as Baron Compton: the first of Oxford’s ‘dozen’ new creations. Northampton resumed his seat after the recess on 2 Jan. 1712, the same day on which Compton took his seat in the House, and towards the end of the month it was rumoured that Northampton was at last to be offered a place as constable of the Tower.65 Absent for much of March, on the 3rd he registered his proxy with Thomas Tufton, 6th earl of Thanet, which was vacated by his return to the House on 24 March. On 21 Apr. Thanet reciprocated by registering his proxy with Northampton, which was vacated by the close of the session. Towards the end of May Northampton was one of those to vote with the ministry in opposing the opposition-inspired motion requesting an address to overturn the orders restraining James Butler*, 2nd duke of Ormond, from engaging in an offensive campaign.66 Northampton finally secured his reward for his loyalty later that year with his appointment as constable of the Tower (a position formerly held by his father) in succession to Richard Savage, 4th Earl Rivers.67 On 19 May he acted as teller for the contents on the question of whether to resume the House from a committee of the whole deliberating on the grants bill and in July he was persuaded to exercise his interest on behalf of D’Oyley Freman, brother of Ralph Freman‡, the influential Tory chairman of the Commons election committee.68

Northampton was in communication with Oxford in London during the autumn of 1712 and in advance of the new session the following spring he was listed by Swift as a likely supporter of the ministry.69 He took his seat in the House on 9 Apr. and the following month introduced Dodington Greville‡ to the queen with the Warwick address.70 On 13 June he was estimated by Oxford as being in favour of confirming the 8th and 9th articles of the French treaty of commerce. Despite this, Northampton’s relationship with Oxford remained a fragile one, and in July he felt the need to remind Oxford that both he and his son, Compton, had ‘attended the whole sessions’ and the following month that ‘it was by your lordship’s favour I was made constable.’71 Bishop Compton’s death that year was marked by a sermon preached by William Whitfield at St Martin’s, Ludgate. The text was later printed with a dedication to Northampton in which Whitfield praised both men, declaring how:

You both aimed at the same end with so uniform justice and integrity, that as it is said, you never differed in any vote … It is our great happiness, my lord, that having been near forty years under his spiritual jurisdiction, we are now with our fellow citizens, in another capacity, under your lordship’s government and protection, by her majesty’s having put into your trust, the Tower of London. May this city never want the advantages it has long received, and now enjoys from that auspicious name, which has been the defence of our holy religion for so many years, under your pious uncle; and is now, under your lordship, and his honourable executor, the present security of our peace and civil rights!72

Northampton took his seat in the new parliament on 16 Feb. 1714 and on 3 May he again received Leigh’s proxy, which was vacated by the close of the session. The following month (2 June) he was entrusted Thanet’s proxy, which was also vacated by the close of the session. On 27 May he was forecast by Nottingham as a likely supporter of the schism bill. Following the death of Queen Anne, Northampton attended ten days of the brief August session and on 10 Aug. he again received Thanet’s proxy (which was vacated by the close of the session).

Northampton’s activities in preparation for the new Parliament provoked the ire of Sir Justinian Isham, who excoriated Northampton for his ‘evasive duplicity’ over Isham’s efforts to be re-elected. Even so Isham comforted himself (inaccurately) that Northampton’s interest in the county ‘was not great.’73 For a brief period, Northampton’s firm adherence to the Tory party does appear to have been in question. He acted as lord sewer at the coronation of King George I in October yet was put out of the Privy Council the following month. In January 1715 he was noted as a Tory still in office but in May he resigned his place at the Tower.74

Northampton continued to be active in the House for the remainder of George I’s reign. He remained a frequent holder of proxies and teller in divisions. Details of his activities after 1715 will be dealt with in the next phase of this work. Northampton attended for the last time on 23 May 1726. In October of that year he created a stir in society by remarrying, his alliance mercilessly lampooned by one of Abigail Harley’s correspondents, Duncombe:

I have not heard of anything that has created a laugh amongst us of some time except the account of Lord Northampton’s addresses to my Lady Thorold and I can imagine a very pleasant scene to myself from my lady’s prudery and my lord’s formality and as my mother says such a match cannot but be carried on with great decorum.75

Certainly, Northampton was aware that his actions might be viewed askance and was at pains to reassure his children that their interests would not be infringed by the alliance.76 The marriage proved to be a brief one, as Northampton died six months later on 13 Apr. 1727 at his house in Bloomsbury Square. In his will he made bequests amounting to more than £45,000 as well providing annuities amounting to £250. He was succeeded in the peerage by his son, James, who was also named sole executor.

R.D.E.E.

  • 1 Verney ms mic. M636/37, J. to Sir R. Verney, 11 Dec. 1682; HMC Rutland, ii. 70-71.
  • 2 HMC Ormonde, vii. 373.
  • 3 Verney ms mic. M636/40, J. to Sir R. Verney, 28 Apr. 1686; TNA, PRO 30/53/8/30, A. Newport to Herbert of Chirbury, 11 May 1686.
  • 4 W. Bingham Compton, Hist. of the Comptons of Compton Wynyates, 136-7.
  • 5 TNA, PROB 11/615.
  • 6 TNA, PC 2/81, f. 362; 2/79, f. 129; 2/83, f. 334; 2/85, f. 1.
  • 7 HP Commons 1690-1715, ii. 440; Castle Ashby ms 1091, Mayor of Northampton to Northampton, 18 Jan. 1692.
  • 8 Bodl. Ballard 18, f. 33.
  • 9 Castle Ashby ms 1091, G. Parke to Mr. Middleton, 14 Mar. 1688; Add. 22267, ff. 164-71.
  • 10 Macky Mems. 86.
  • 11 Verney ms mic. M636/37, Sir Ralph Verney to John Verney, 7 Dec. 1682.
  • 12 HMC Downshire, i. 117, 122-3; HMC Portland, iii. 394-5.
  • 13 TNA, PRO 30/53/11; WSHC, Goodwood ms 5/6/8.
  • 14 Add. 72517, ff. 7-8; Add. 75360, Sir John Reresby to Halifax, 27 Apr. 1686.
  • 15 HMC Downshire, i. 210-11.
  • 16 Verney ms mic. M636/41, Dr W. Denton to Sir R. Verney, 21 Sept. 1686; Bodl. Tanner 30, f. 129.
  • 17 Sherborne Castle, Digby mss vol. ii. f. 319; Castle Ashby ms 1108, Northampton to ?, 7 Oct. 1687.
  • 18 Add. 34510, ff. 49, 64-65.
  • 19 Castle Ashby ms 1091, G. Parke to Mr Middleton, 14 Mar., 30 May 1688.
  • 20 Gregg, Queen Anne, 65; Add. 72516, ff. 75-76.
  • 21 Castle Ashby ms 1108, Northampton to dep. lts. of Warws, Dec. 1688.
  • 22 Ibid. 1090, H. Parker to Northampton, 17 Oct. 1688.
  • 23 Universal Intelligencer, 18-22 Dec. 1688; Bodl. Carte 198, f. 66.
  • 24 Kingdom without a King, 124, 153, 158, 165.
  • 25 Chatsworth, Halifax collection B.92.
  • 26 Add. 29594, f. 198; HP Commons 1690-1715, ii. 425-7.
  • 27 Northants. RO, IC 1434; HP Commons 1690-1715, ii. 440.
  • 28 Castle Ashby ms 1091, mayor and aldermen of Northampton to Northampton, 12 Jan. 1690.
  • 29 Ibid. mayor of Northampton to Northampton, 20 Jan. 1690, Northampton to the mayor of Northampton, 24 Jan. 1690.
  • 30 Ibid. Northampton to the Lord President, 26 July 1690.
  • 31 Ibid. mayor of Northampton to Northampton, 18 Jan. 1692.
  • 32 Castle Ashby ms 1093, Sir S. Fox to Northampton, [8], May 1692.
  • 33 Verney ms mic. M636/45, C. Gardiner to Sir R. Verney, 14 Feb. 1693.
  • 34 Castle Ashby ms 1093, Sir S. Fox to Northampton, 1 June, 4 July 1693.
  • 35 CSP Dom. 1693, pp. 397, 410, 412.
  • 36 Castle Ashby ms 1091, Northampton to C. Mountague, 28 Feb. 1694.
  • 37 HP Commons 1690-1715, ii. 440.
  • 38 Castle Ashby ms 1091, Northampton to the mayor of Northampton, 28 Feb. 1694.
  • 39 Northants. RO, IC 1473.
  • 40 Verney ms mic. M636/48, A. Nicholas to Sir R. Verney, 9 Oct. 1694.
  • 41 Castle Ashby ms 1091, Mayor of Northampton to Northampton, 22 Jan. 1695.
  • 42 Pols. in Age of Anne, 330.
  • 43 Luttrell, Brief Relation, iv. 369; Verney ms mic. M636/48, A. Nicholas to J. Verney, 30 Oct. 1695.
  • 44 Castle Ashby ms 1091, Mayor of Northampton to Northampton, 17 Mar. 1696.
  • 45 Ibid. C. Holt, C. Fisher. W. Bromley and William, Lord Digby to Northampton, 15 June 1696.
  • 46 Ibid. Northampton to Lord Digby, 16 June 1696.
  • 47 Castle Ashby ms 1090, Council Board to Northampton, 3 Aug. 1696.
  • 48 Ibid. Council Board to Northampton, 24 Sept., 26 Nov. 1696, 11 Feb. 1697.
  • 49 Castle Ashby ms 1109, petition from the shoemakers of Northampton.
  • 50 WCRO, Mordaunt of Walton Hall mss CR 1368/iii/34; HP Commons 1690-1715, ii. 618-20.
  • 51 Castle Ashby ms 1091, Brooke to Northampton, [15] Mar. 1701; Sir J. Mordaunt to Northampton, 15 Apr. 1701; W. Bromley to Northampton, 13 Sept. 1701.
  • 52 HP Commons 1690-1715, ii. 620.
  • 53 Castle Ashby ms 1109, Northampton to Pembroke, [1701].
  • 54 Verney ms mic. M636/52, C. Gardiner to Sir J. Verney, 7 July 1702.
  • 55 Northants. RO, IC 2940.
  • 56 Castle Ashby ms 1094, T. Newton to Northampton, 21 Mar. 1708.
  • 57 Add. 72494, ff. 115-16; Verney ms mic. M636/54, M. Cave to Fermanagh, 9 June 1709.
  • 58 WCRO, Mordaunt of Walton Hall mss CR 1368/iii/70, 92.
  • 59 Add. 70283, f. 95.
  • 60 Add. 70027, f. 165.
  • 61 Add. 70315, Northampton to H. Paget, 22 May 1711.
  • 62 Add. 70219, Bishop Compton to Oxford, 21 June 1711.
  • 63 Add. 70287, W. Bromley to Oxford, 5 Dec. 1711.
  • 64 Add. 70283, e. 97.
  • 65 Add. 72495, ff. 120-1.
  • 66 PH, xxvi. 177-81.
  • 67 Add. 70283, Northampton to Oxford, 12 July 1712.
  • 68 Add. 70197, R. Freman to Oxford, 20 July 1712.
  • 69 Add. 70283, Northampton to Oxford, 3 and 9 Oct. 1712.
  • 70 London Gazette, 26-30 May 1713.
  • 71 Add. 70283, Northampton to Oxford, 20 July 1713; Add. 70283, e. 115.
  • 72 W. Whitfield, Sermon on the Death of the Late Lord Bishop of London, (1713).
  • 73 E.G. Forrester, Northamptonshire Elections and Electioneering, 1695-1832, p. 37.
  • 74 Bodl. Ballard 36, f. 175.
  • 75 Add. 70144, M. Duncombe to A. Harley, 27 Oct. 1726.
  • 76 Castle Ashby ms 1107.