BANGHAM, Edward (c.1659-c.1712), of Leominster, Herefs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1710 - c. 1712

Family and Education

b. c.1659.  m. Ann (d. Sept.1712), at least 2s. 2da. d.v.p.1

Offices Held

Bailiff, Leominster 1689, 1695.

Biography

A ‘dyer’ of Leominster, Bangham may well have been connected with the namesake who had been bailiff of the borough before him in 1672. He came into Parliament on the interest of his partner Edward Harley* in 1710, probably as a makeweight, since, as one observer noted, it was not in any way obvious ‘what pleasure Ned Bangham can take in the House’. He had not always been associated with the Harleys, however. Indeed, in the January 1701 general election he had acted as the ‘principal agent’ of John Dutton Colt* in a contest against Edward Harley, implicated up to the hilt in Colt’s alleged bribery, treating and menaces. It may be assumed that the appointment of Bangham’s son Edward to be deputy to Edward Harley as an auditor of the imprest helped to swing the family over to the Harley side. Edward Bangham jnr. seems in turn to have served as his master’s ‘principal agent’ in the Leominster constituency from 1710 onwards.2

Bangham was classed as a Tory in the ‘Hanover list’, and was subsequently listed as one of the ‘worthy patriots’ who in the first session exposed the mismanagements of the previous administration. In other respects, he realized the low expectations entertained of him. He made no speech of which there is a record, and was twice granted leave of absence, on 8 Feb. 1711 for a month, and on 1 Feb. 1712 for six weeks. The date of Bangham’s death, aged 53, is recorded on a funerary monument as ‘1712’. Given that the House took no notice of a vacancy arising, an ‘old style’ reference to 1713 may well have been intended. His son continued as deputy auditor of the imprest until his death in 1760, when the Herefordshire estate of Stockton Bury, which his governmental service had enabled him to purchase, passed to a son-in-law, Hon. Thomas Harley†, himself a younger son of the 3rd Earl of Oxford and thus a grandson of Auditor Harley.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

  • 1. J. Price, Hist. and Top. Acct. Leominster, 69, 115, 117, 125; W. R. Williams, Herefs. MPs, 137; PCC 314 Lynch.
  • 2. NLW, Ottley mss 2587, Charles Baldwyn* to Adam Ottley, 10 Oct. 1710; Price, 68; Add. 70216, James Caswall to Robert Harley*, 9 Oct. 1710; 70226, Thomas Foley I* to same, 25 Sept. 1710, 19 Aug. 1713; 70278, list of witnesses in Leominster election case [1701]; 70084, Ld. Coningsby (Thomas*) to bailiff of Leominster, 11 Dec. 1714; CJ, xiii. 471–3; Williams, 137; Cal. Treas. Bks. and Pprs. 1731–4, p. 587; Cal. Treas. Pprs. 1714–19, p. 378.
  • 3. Price, 117; Cal. Treas. Bks. and Pprs. 1742–5, p. 803; Gent. Mag. 1760, p. 346; Williams, 137.