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WINDSOR, Hon. Dixie (c.1673-1743), of Gamlingay, Cambs.
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Biography Detail
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. c.1673, 2nd s. of Thomas Windsor, 1st Earl of Plymouth, by his 2nd w.; bro. of Hon. Andrews* and Thomas, Visct. Windsor*. educ. Westminster by 1688–91; Trinity Coll. Camb. matric. 26 June 1691, aged 17, BA 1695, fellow 1697, MA 1698. m. Dorothy, da. and event. coh. of Sir Richard Slate of Jesmond Hall, Northumb., s.p.
Offices Held
Capt.-lt. Ld. Windsor’s Horse by 1706–7; storekeeper of the Ordnance 1712–17.1
Freeman, Droitwich c.1707.2
Biography
Windsor stood for Cambridge University in 1705, when he opposed Lord Godolphin’s (Sidney†) son, Hon. Francis*. Despite rumoured threats from Godolphin to take away his commission Windsor did not desist, and a hotly contested election followed, wherein he reportedly met with ‘all the foul play in the world’ but emerged victorious and was returned for Cambridge at every subsequent election in this period. He was listed as a ‘Churchman’ in about June 1705 and as a ‘loss’ for the Whigs by Lord Sunderland (Charles, Lord Spencer*), confirming this analysis by voting against the Court candidate for Speaker on 25 Oct. 1705. On 10 Nov. he told for the Tory side in favour of setting an early date for the elections committee to hear the disputed election at Chester. In the next session, in February 1706, he told twice for Tory measures: on the 7th for going into a committee of the whole on the bill to secure the Church of England; and on the 22nd for an additional clause to the bill for union with Scotland to prevent the future imposition in England of any oath or test inconsistent with the Church of England. On 19 Apr. he was again a teller for passing the bill to prevent customs frauds by drawbacks. In this year his brother, Viscount Windsor, had his regiment taken from him for opposing the ministry and, not surprisingly, given his own record, Dixie lost his commission in the same regiment on 30 Apr. 1707.
Lack of office may have encouraged Windsor to increase his activity in the next session. On 9 Dec. 1707 he was a teller for giving immediate consideration to the charges of blasphemy against John Asgill*, who shared the representation of Bramber with Viscount Windsor. The Windsors were no doubt anxious to be rid of him because he was a Whig and because they wanted the seat for Dixie’s brother-in-law, William Shippen*. On 12 Dec. Windsor told against a Court amendment to the land tax bill. Classed as a Tory in a list of early 1708, his last tellership in this Parliament was on 9 Mar. 1708 in favour of condemning John Hooke, chief justice of Caernarvon, for fining the mayor of Beaumaris when the corporation of that town had refused to give Hooke a present.3
Returned again in 1708, Windsor was classed as a Tory in an analysis of the new Parliament. He was a teller on the Tory side in three election disputes: Reading (9 Dec. 1708), Westminster (16 Dec.), and Orford (29 Jan. 1709). In the last session of this Parliament he told for the Tories on 2 Feb. 1710 against publishing the House’s reply to Dr Sacheverell, and also voted against Sacheverell’s impeachment. On 9 Feb. he told in favour of the Tory Samuel Shepheard II’s* election for Cambridge. He was given leave of absence for his health on 16 Mar. Classed as a Tory in the ‘Hanover list’ of the 1710 Parliament, he was listed in 1711 as one of the ‘worthy patriots’ who detected the mismanagements of the previous administration. He had now been joined in the Commons by his brother Hon. Andrews, an MP until the end of the period, and the distinction between their activities is not immediately clear, except that since Andrews was a serving soldier, it is likely that Dixie was the busier of the two and was probably the ‘Mr Windsor’ who chaired the committee of the whole on 20 Dec. 1711 on the bill to preserve the Protestant religion. A member of the October Club, Windsor was given an Ordnance office in June 1712, when Robert Harley* was seeking an accommodation with the Octobrists, but he nevertheless voted against the French commerce bill on 18 June 1713. In Queen Anne’s last Parliament, he, like his brothers, emerged as a Hanoverian Tory, being classed on the Worsley list as a Tory who would sometimes vote with the Whigs. On religious issues his attachment to the Church was clearly demonstrated on 12 May 1714 when he supported the initiation of the schism bill, and further on the 27th when he served as teller for its engrossment. On two other comparative lists of the 1713 and 1715 Parliaments he was classed as a Tory. Due to his support for the Hanoverian succession he retained his Ordnance post until 1717, although for the rest of his parliamentary career he remained a moderate Tory. He died on 20 Oct. 1743.
