DASHWOOD, Sir Samuel (c.1643-1705), of Bishopsgate, London and Mortlake, Surr.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1685
1690

Family and Education

b. c.1643, 1st s. of Francis Dashwood, merchant, of London by 1st w. Alice, da. of Richard Sleigh of Pilsbury, Derbys. m. lic. 17 May 1670 (aged 27), Anne (d. 16 June 1721), da. of John Smith of South Tidworth, Hants, 3s. (1 d.v.p.) 7da. suc. fa. 1683; kntd. 30 July 1684.1

Offices Held

Member, Vintners’ Co. 1663, master 1684-5, asst. to 1687; member, Levant Co. 1663, asst. 1680-91; asst. R. Africa Co. 1672-4, 1677-9, 1682-4, 1687-9, 1692-3, 1698-9, 1701-3, 1705-d.; sheriff, London 1683-4, alderman 1683-7, Oct. 1688-d., ld. mayor 1702-3; committee, E.I. Co. 1684-6, 1690-5, 1698-1703, dep. gov. 1700-2; dep. lt. London 1685-7, Oct. 1688-?95, London and Surr. 1702-d.; commr. for assessment, London 1689-90, Surr. 1690; col. yellow regt. of militia ft. London 1702-d.; j.p. Bucks. 1702-d.; pres. Bethlehem and Bridewell hospitals 1704-d.2

Jt. farmer of excise 1677-83, commr. 1689-96; commr. for preventing export of wool 1689-92.3

Biography

Dashwood’s grandfather was a Somerset yeoman. His father established himself in business in London, and with Dashwood’s uncle (the father of Sir Robert Dashwood) formed a syndicate to farm the excise in 1677. Dashwood himself was elected Tory sheriff of London in June 1683. He applied through (Sir) Stephen Fox for permission to fine off, but the King replied that he could not ‘dispense with Mr Dashwood being sheriff this year’, and he was continued in office after the forfeiture of the charter. He was also appointed to the excise commission on the abolition of farming in the same year.4

Dashwood was elected for London in 1685, and became a moderately active Member of James II’s Parliament. He was appointed to six committees, including those on expiring laws (26 May), on the bill to rebuild St. Paul’s (22 June) and for the general naturalization of Huguenot refugees (1 July). He also sat on a committee on a bill to amend the bankruptcy laws, which did not reach the statute book before the prorogation. On 19 Dec. he supported a petition against a defaulting banker, and urged a reform in the law. He had himself been defrauded of £5,000, and when the case was judged the following year the only penalty which could be imposed on the banker under a statute of James I was the pillory. Between July 1685 and August 1686 he made loans to the crown amounting to £32,500 at 7 per cent on the security of the linen duty.5

Dashwood was one of the six Tory aldermen removed in the summer of 1687 for opposing the London address for liberty of conscience. Reinstated as alderman on the restoration of the charter in October 1688, he became an active member of the common council and a member of its committees to administer the city lands and the Ulster Plantation. He was among those appointed on 11 Dec. to draw up the address to the Prince of Orange, and to raise a loan of £200,000, of which he subscribed £60,000 himself. At this time he held £2,725 East India stock. He also sat on the committees to procure the reversal of the judgement of quo warranto against the City, and to produce a scheme for restoring the solvency of the widows’ and orphans’ fund. Still a Tory, he was defeated at a by-election in May 1689, but he was appointed to the excise board, and regained his seat at the general election of 1690. He died on 10 Sept. 1705, aged 63, and was buried at Mortlake. His younger brother, who bought West Wycombe from the father of Thomas Lewes and sat for Winchelsea from 1708 to 1713 as a Whig, founded a major parliamentary dynasty.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Cussans, Herts. Hitchin, 52.
  • 2. J. R. Woodhead, Rulers of London, 56; PC2/72/507; HMC Lords, iii. 45; Guildhall Lib. Stocken and Noble Colls.; Luttrell, v. 193.
  • 3. Cal. Treas. Bks. v. 532; vi. 46; vii. 665, 772; ix. 253; xi. 164.
  • 4. North, Lives, ii. 202-4; Luttrell, i. 278, 283; Clarendon Corresp. i. 90-91; CSP Dom. July-Sept. 1683, pp. 373, 386; 1683-4, p. 16.
  • 5. Christ Church Oxf. Evelyn mss; CSP Dom. 1685, p. 64; 1686-7, p. 165.
  • 6. Luttrell, i. 411; Cal. Treas. Bks. viii. 2177-81; Ellis Corresp. ii. 350; London Corp. RO, common council jnl.; Add. 22185, f. 14; R. Morrice, Entering Bk. 2, p.556; Maitland, Hist. London, i. 490; Sewall Diary, i. 216.