BANKES, John (c.1668-1714), of Kingston Lacy and Corfe Castle, Dorset

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

1698 - 1714

Family and Education

b. c.1668, 1st s. of Sir Ralph Bankes† of Kingston Lacy and Corfe Castle by Mary, da. and h. of John Brune of Athelhampton, Dorset.  m. lic. 30 May 1691, Margaret, da. of Henry Parker*, sis. of Hugh Parker*, 5s. 2da.  suc. fa. 1677.1

Offices Held

Hereditary constable, Corfe Castle; hereditary ld. lt. Isle of Purbeck.2

Biography

A High Tory, and related by marriage to the Earl of Rochester (Laurence Hyde†), Bankes sat for Corfe Castle, a constituency which his father and grandfather had also represented. Nothing is known about Bankes during his first Parliament, apart from an early prediction that he would oppose the standing army. In February 1701 he was listed as likely to support the Court over the ‘Great Mortgage’, and in December Robert Harley* classed him as a Tory. Bankes voted on 26 Feb. 1702 in favour of the resolution to vindicate the Commons over the impeachments of the previous session. Having been forecast as likely to support the Tack, he duly voted for it on 28 Nov. 1704. In an analysis of the 1705 Parliament he was listed as ‘True Church’. On 25 Oct. 1705 he divided against the Court candidate for Speaker, and on 20 Dec. he received leave of absence for health reasons. Noted as a Tory in an early analysis of the 1708 Parliament, he later voted against the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell. The ‘Hanover list’ classified him as a Tory in 1710, and he appears both in the list of ‘Tory patriots’ who opposed the continuance of the war, and in the list of ‘worthy patriots’ who detected the mismanagements of the previous administration. Thereafter, he was probably suffering from ill-health, receiving leave for that reason on 24 Feb. 1711 and 31 May 1712. He was buried at Wimborne, Dorset, in 1714. Two of his sons sat for Corfe Castle after 1715.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

  • 1. Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 221, 239–40.
  • 2. Bodl. Willis mss 48, ff. 225, 235.
  • 3. Hutchins, 221.