LUTWYCHE, Thomas (1674-1734), of the Inner Temple, and Lutwyche Hall, Salop.

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 - 1722
1722 - 1727
23 Feb. 1728 - 13 Nov. 1734

Family and Education

bap. 21 Sept. 1674, 1st surv. s. of Sir Edward Lutwyche†, j.c.p., of Lutwyche Hall by Anne, da. of Sir Timothy Tourneur of Bold, Salop.  educ. Westminster, KS 1688; Christ Church, Oxf. 1692; I. Temple 1684, called 1697, bencher 1710, treasurer 1721.  m. Elizabeth, da. of William Bagnall of Bretforton, Worcs., 2s. 3da.  suc. fa. 1709.1

Offices Held

QC 1710–14.

Freeman, Appleby 1714.2

Biography

Lutwyche came from a long-established Shropshire family who had come into possession of Lutwyche Hall by the beginning of the 15th century and provided an MP to four Elizabethan Parliaments. His father had risen to prominence under James II, serving in the 1685 Parliament and being appointed a judge, and it was probably his support in the latter capacity for James’s dispensing power that led to his being exempted from the 1690 Act of Indemnity. Although Lutwyche’s father refused the oaths following the Revolution, he remained a practising barrister until 1704. Lutwyche followed hm into the law, establishing a successful practice as indicated by his frequent appearances before the Lords. Lutwyche appears to have been unwilling to enter the political arena, the Tory lawyer John Ward III* observing to the Earl of Nottingham (Daniel Finch*) that Lutwyche was ‘the man of the whole profession whose assistance I have longed for in Parliament and whom I could never prevail with to stand till now’. Lutwyche may be the ‘Mr Lutwych’ who was mentioned in July 1710 as a possible candidate at Much Wenlock, but though he entered the Commons at the 1710 election it was not for a seat in his native county. He was instead returned for Appleby on the interest of the Earl of Thanet (Hon. Thomas Tufton†), being classed in the ‘Hanover list’ as a Tory. On 2 Mar. 1711 he was granted a month’s leave of absence. He was subsequently listed among the ‘worthy patriots’ who had detected the mismanagements of the previous ministry, on which list he was marked as a member of the October Club. In May 1711 he rejected Robert Harley’s* offer to make him a judge. On 24 Jan. 1712 Lutwyche spoke against the Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill†) during the censure debate following the commission of accounts’ report on the Duke. Lutwyche was granted a further leave of absence during the following session (7 Mar. 1712), on this occasion for six weeks. In the final session of the Parliament he voted on 18 June 1713 for the French commerce bill. Re-elected at Appleby in 1713, he spoke on 15 Apr. 1714 against the motion that the Hanoverian succession was in danger. Both the Worsley list and another comparison of the 1713 and 1715 Parliaments classed Lutwyche as a Tory, and he remained a Member until his death on 13 Nov. 1734.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Authors: Eveline Cruickshanks / Richard Harrison

Notes

  • 1. Le Neve’s Knights (Harl. Soc. viii), 391.
  • 2. Cumbria RO (Kendal), Appleby bor. recs. WSMB/A minute bk. 3, 17 Aug. 1714.
  • 3. Foss, Judges, vii. 254; Leics. RO, Finch mss box 4950, Ward to Nottingham, 31 Aug. 1710 (Speck trans.); Hopkinson thesis, 48; HMC Portland, iv. 578, 693; BL, Trumbull Add. mss 136, Ralph Bridges to Sir William Trumbull*, 25 Jan. 1711–12; Douglas diary (Hist. of Parl. trans.), 15 Apr. 1714.