SACKVILLE, Hon. Edward (1644-78).

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

Constituency

Dates

21 Apr. 1675 - 10 Oct. 1678

Family and Education

b. 2 Apr. 1644, 2nd s. of Richard Sackville, 5th Earl of Dorset; bro. of Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst. educ. Westminster 1657-8; travelled abroad (France) 1658. unm.

Offices Held

Ensign, yeoman of the guard 1668-d.; capt. Duke of Buckingham’s Ft. 1672-3, 1 Ft. Gds. (later Grenadier Gds.) 1673-d.

J.p. Suss. 1675-d., commr. for assessment 1677-d.

Biography

Sackville was brought up with his elder brother and associated with him in many of his escapades. A courtier and an army officer, he was constantly in debt. When Lord Buckhurst was called to the Upper House in 1675, Sackville succeeded to the family seat of East Grinstead unopposed, with the aid of a letter of recommendation from his father in France. He did not take his seat at once, and was listed as a defaulter at a call of the House on 26 May, but he was included among the King’s servants in the autumn session. He was not an active committeeman, being appointed to only eight committees, none of which was of political significance. He was marked ‘worthy’ on Shaftesbury’s list, and acted as teller in two divisions: against a proviso to the bill to prevent frauds and abuses in the import of Irish cattle on 5 Apr. 1677, and against a resolution on 1 June 1678 that the proceedings in the House had not occasioned a peace. Nevertheless he was included in the government list of court supporters. He went to Flanders with his regiment under the command of Col. John Russell, but returned in the autumn suffering from a malignant fever. His doctor reported to (Sir) Joseph Williamson:

In my life I never found a person more confused, nor have I yet by all the applications of the best counsels I am capable of, been able to recollect him, nor to understand the reasons of his discontent, it being from a complication of so many causes, for sometimes ’tis from apprehension of his Majesty’s and his Royal Highness’s displeasure, soon after from great indignation towards Col. Russell who, he believes, has dealt very artificially with him, next the displeasure of his mother, and what may be perhaps more than all the rest, the loss of a mistress, he being (as it seems to me by the loose discourses I have had from him) upon the top of his marriage. ... I conceive some compassion ought to be had of him, considering his relations and, what weighs more with me, his integrity, he having always gone along with his Majesty in the House of Commons, if I be not mistaken, and of his courage there can be no dispute, I having met him in the fleet on all occasions.

Sackville died on 10 Oct. 1678, and was buried at Withyham.

C. J. Phillips, Hist. Sackville Fam. i. 426, 428-9; Recs. Old Westminsters, 811; Kent AO, U269/C38/3.

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: B. M. Crook

Notes