STILES, Joseph Haskins (d. 1714), of Mark Lane, London and Streatham, Surr.

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

Dec. 1701 - 19 Jan. 1703
8 Feb. - 6 Dec. 1703

Family and Education

o. s. of John Haskins of Wantage, Berks. by Alice, prob. da. of Henry Stiles of Wantage, sis. of Robert Stiles, merchant, of London and Amsterdam.  m. 18 Sept. 1683, Sarah, da. and coh. of Sir John Eyles† of Great St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, London and Southbroom St. James, Bishop’s Cannings, nr. Devizes, Wilts., 2s. 2da.  suc. uncle Robert Stiles 1680 and assumed add. name of Stiles; fa. 1691.1

Offices Held

Commr. taking subscriptions to land bank 1696; trustee, receiving loan to Emperor 1706.2

Biography

The Member’s maternal uncle, a prosperous Amsterdam merchant, ‘took him into his family in 1655 . . . employed him in his business, and at length took him into partnership’. In 1680 Haskins succeeded to the bulk of his uncle’s estate (estimated at £150,000) on condition that he took the additional surname of Stiles. Through his marriage in 1683 to a daughter of the wealthy London merchant Sir John Eyles, he gained many useful commercial and political connexions. Stiles subscribed some £10,000 to the land tax in 1693. With his wife’s uncle, Francis Eyles, he undertook negotiations with the Treasury as a member of the committee elected in May 1696 from among the commissioners for taking subscriptions to the land bank. After losing elections at Cricklade in 1695 and 1698, he was returned unopposed for Sudbury in December 1701, his prospective son-in-law, Sir John Cordell, 3rd Bt.*, stepping aside for him. He was marked as a ‘gain’ by Lord Sunderland (Charles, Lord Spencer*) and was also listed as a Whig by Robert Harley*. His re-election in 1702 was declared void by the Commons on 19 Jan. 1703 on the petition of George Dashwood*. Stiles carried the ensuing by-election in February 1703, but Dashwood was seated on petition on 6 Dec. He did not stand again for Parliament.3

Stiles died in December 1714 and was buried in Mr John Eyles’s vault in St. Helen’s church, Bishopsgate, 28 Dec. His second son, Benjamin, his eventual heir, sat for Devizes 1721–34.4

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

  • 1. PCC 16 Fagg, 212 Vere; Wilts. N. and Q. viii. 146–50; St. Helen’s Bishopsgate (Harl. Soc. Reg. xxxi), 163; J. R. Woodhead, Rulers of London (London and Mdx. Arch. Soc), 66.
  • 2. CJ, xii. 509; Boyer, Anne Annals, iv. 126.
  • 3. Wilts. N. and Q. 148–9; P. G. M. Dickson, Financial Revol. 429; Add. 70155, jnl. commrs. taking subscriptions to land bank.
  • 4. St. Helen’s Bishopsgate 357.