suc. fa. 1 Nov. 1710 as 2nd Bar. HAVERSHAM
First sat 27 Nov. 1710; last sat 14 Feb. 1745
MP Bletchingley 1695–8; Gatton 1698–1705
b. 1675, o. surv. s. of John Thompson, Bar. Haversham, and Frances (d.1705), da. of Arthur Annesley, earl of Anglesey, and wid. of John Windham of Felbrigg, Norf. educ. L. Inn 1692; travelled abroad (Holland) 1693. m. (1) 18 Oct. 1703 (with £10,000), Elizabeth (d.1712), da. and h. of John Smith of Herts. 2s. d.v.p.1 2da. d.v.p.; (2) 16 Aug. 1737, Elizabeth (d.1772), da. of Richard Annesley, 3rd Bar. Altham [I], sis. of Richard Annesley, 6th earl of Anglesey, and wid. of William Green, s.p. d. 11 Apr. 1745; will 19 Mar., pr. 11 Apr. 1745.2
Page to Sophia, Electress of Hanover; recvr. gen. excise 1717–18.3
Capt. 1st Ft. Gds. 1695, Coldstream Gds. 1697–1702; brevet lt. col. 1697.
Associated with: Haversham, Bucks.; Richmond, Surr.; 62 Grosvenor St Mayfair 1730–4.4
Having survived an attack of smallpox as a young child, Thompson began his public career as a page to Sophia, Electress of Hanover.5 In active military service, he was wounded at the siege of Namur in 1694, given a commission and entered the Commons the following year as a staunch court Whig, following his father’s original political allegiances.6 His father’s political life had been influenced by a close relationship with the Annesley family; the 2nd Baron maintained this tradition when, after the death of his first wife, he married the sister of the 6th earl of Anglesey. The union augmented his already healthy patrimony and the dowry he had received on the occasion of his first marriage.7
As the only surviving son (seen by some as ‘a fool of £4,000 a year’ before the death of his father in 1710), Haversham inherited some £35,000 of personal estate and large tracts of real estate, including the family seat at Haversham.8 Settlement of the estate was held up for years in litigation over the jointure of Haversham’s step-mother and the portions to his sisters; this involved him in a dispute with his Tory brother-in-law Arthur Annesley, 5th earl of Anglesey.9
Usually an inactive member of the lower House, Thompson had nevertheless acted in concert with his then Whig father, perhaps most obviously during attempts to impeach the Whig lords. On 16 May 1701 he had criticized the partiality of the proceedings and unsuccessfully moved for the impeachment of Edward Villiers, earl of Jersey, for having signed the Second Partition Treaty. He argued that ‘it would reflect upon the justice of the house to have some punished and others as great criminals escape without notice’.10
The new Lord Haversham took his seat in the Lords on 27 Nov. 1710, attending the session for 44 per cent of sittings. Over the next four and a half years he attended each of five parliamentary sessions but was present at only one session for two-thirds of all sittings (in spring 1714). For the remaining four he attended for fewer than 50 per cent of sitting days. Unlike his father he remained whiggishly inclined, opposing the new Tory administration in its pursuit of peace with France and concurrent critique of the previous ministry’s foreign policy. On 11 Jan. 1711 he twice protested against Lords’ resolutions concerning the conduct of the war in Spain. On 3 Feb. he protested against resolutions that the Spanish establishment at the time of the battle of Almanza had lacked proper supply (amounting to neglect by the previous ministry). Five days later he twice dissented from resolutions on the representation to the queen concerning the war in Spain. The following day he dissented from a resolution regarding an item to be expunged from the Journal. On 16 Mar. 1711 he attended the session for the last time and registered his proxy in favour of Charles Cornwallis, 4th Baron Cornwallis (vacated at the end of the session).
In Dec. 1711 Haversham was listed by Daniel Finch, 2nd earl of Nottingham, as a possible Whig ally against the peace process. On 2 Dec. 1711 Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, noted that he was one of the peers to be canvassed before the ‘no peace without Spain’ motion. Haversham was at the House on 7 Dec. for the start of business but attended the session for only 38 per cent of sittings. He was forecast on 19 Dec. as being opposed to Scottish peers sitting in the House by right of a British title created after the Union and voted accordingly on the following day. Two days later he registered his proxy in favour of Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun. It was vacated with his attendance on 28 Mar. 1712.
On 20 May 1712 Haversham acted as a teller in the division for the passage of the Grants bill. On 28 May he registered his protest against the decision of the House not to ask the queen for a military offensive against France. On 7 June he protested against the resolution not to amend the address on the queen’s speech concerning the peace. Six days later he attended the session for the last time, missing the last week of business. In Feb. 1713 he was again listed by Oxford as a peer to be canvassed before the next session. Haversham attended the House on 9 Apr. for the start of the new session and was present thereafter for half of all sittings. On 13 June Oxford speculated that he would oppose the bill confirming the eighth and ninth articles of the French commercial treaty. Haversham did not attend the session after 10 July 1713.
On 8 Aug. 1713 Parliament was dissolved. There is no available evidence that Haversham involved himself in the ensuing parliamentary elections, but his political affiliations were being examined by the Hanoverians. On 31 July, in a schedule prepared for the elector of Hanover, Haversham was listed as one of the ‘poor lords’ as one who would ‘always … be right out of principle’ but was currently in the ‘lowest condition’, perhaps because of the ongoing litigation that prevented the settlement of his father’s estate.
On 18 Feb. 1714, Haversham resumed his seat on the third day of the new Parliament and attended the session for 66 per cent of sittings. He was in the House on 5 Apr. 1714 for the division on the supposed danger to the Protestant succession, almost certainly voting with the slim majority that declared it was not.11 He was again present on 13 Apr. when the Lords considered the queen’s reply to the address on the danger posed by the Pretender. By this time, Haversham’s ongoing battle to secure his patrimony had reached the House. On 11 Dec. 1713 chancery had found in his favour in the cause of Haversham v. Haversham regarding the jointure of Martha, Dowager Lady Haversham.12 On 5 Apr. 1714 her appeal for a reversal of the decree came before the House.13 On 2 June the House heard the case, dismissed the appeal and affirmed the chancery decree, although the estate was not finally settled until 1717.14
Meanwhile, on 27 May 1714 Haversham was forecast as an opponent of the Tory schism bill. He attended throughout the passage of the bill, acting as a teller on 9 June in the division of the committee of the whole. On the 15th the bill passed the House by a majority of only eight votes; Haversham was one of the 33 lords who registered their protest. On 5 July he quarrelled at the House with Montagu Venables Bertie, 2nd earl of Abingdon (possibly because of the Haversham inheritance dispute). With the two lords poised to take their fight outside the chamber, the House was informed that ‘from some words which passed between the earl of Abingdon and the Lord Haversham, there is reason to believe a quarrel may ensue’. They were duly ordered ‘not to proceed any further in this matter’. Both submitted to the injunction. On 8 July Haversham protested against the resolution regarding the asiento contract and the South Sea Company, a company in which he had a commercial interest. He was present for the prorogation the following day.
Haversham did not attend the brief session that met in the wake of Queen Anne’s death until 13 August. He was present on only five sitting days before the prorogation on the 25th. Following the elections for the new Parliament of 1715, he missed the first two months of business in spring 1715 and did not resume his seat until 23 May. His parliamentary career after 1715 will be examined in the next phase of this work.
The title was extinguished at Haversham’s death without surviving male issue on 11 Apr. 1745. He made his wife Elizabeth sole executrix of his will, bequeathing all of his real estate in Britain, Ireland and the American colonies to be held in trust by Charles Annesley of Dublin, Major General John Guys of Kensington and the clergyman James Altham of Essex for sale to benefit his wife and grand-daughters, Ann and Elizabeth Carter, and Helena Gregory and Maurice Thompson Guernley. He was buried at Haversham on 19 Apr. 1745 despite having sold the family seat in 1728.
B.A./R.P.- 1 Verney, ms. mic. M636/54, Fermanagh to R. Verney, 28 Feb. 1712.
- 2 TNA, PROB 11/739.
- 3 HP Commons, 1690–1715, v. 627; CTB, xxxi. 25–39.
- 4 Survey of London, xl. 44–57.
- 5 Add. 18730, f. 27.
- 6 HP Commons, 1690–1715, v. 627.
- 7 Luttrell, Brief Relation, v. 355.
- 8 HP Commons, 1690–1715, v. 627; TNA, PROB 5/4199, 4200; Topographical Dictionary of England, ed. S. Lewis, 447–50; Christ Church Lib. Oxf. ms Wake 4, f. 118; ms Wake 5, f. 192.
- 9 TNA, C 6/406/5, C 6/414/42, C 6/423/62, C 6/424/21, C 6/424/27, C 9/378/10.
- 10 Cocks Diary, 129–30.
- 11 EHR, l. 463.
- 12 Lancs. RO, DDO 1/24, 1/35, 1/53, 1/55, 1/57, 1/58.
- 13 PA, HL/PO/JO/10/6/245/3100.
- 14 Lancs. RO, DDO 1/68, 1/69.