BLAKE DELAVAL, Francis (1727-71), of Ford Castle and Seaton Delaval, Northumb.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

4 May 1751 - 1754
1754 - 1768

Family and Education

b. 16 Mar. 1727, 1st s. of Francis Delaval. educ. Westminster 1737-44; Ch. Ch. Oxf. 1747. m. 8 Mar. 1750, Isabella, da. and coh. of Thomas Tufton, M.P., 6th Earl of Thanet, wid. of Lord Nassau Powlett, s.p. suc. fa. to Northumbrian estates 9 Dec. 1752; K.B. 23 Mar. 1761.

Offices Held

Biography

In November 1749 Delaval, aged 22, unsuccessfully contested Andover, only receiving one vote.1 In March 1751 he took part in a production of Othello, which Horace Walpole describes as

acted by people of some fashion at Drury Lane, hired on purpose. They really acted so well, that it is astonishing they should not have had sense enough not to act at all ... The chief were a family of Delavals, the eldest of which was married by one Foote, a player, to Lady Nassau Powlett, who had kept the latter. The rage was so great to see this performance, that the House of Commons literally adjourned at three o’clock on purpose: the footmen’s gallery was strung with blue ribands.2

Two months later he was returned for Hindon, making his maiden speech on the second reading of the regency bill,

opposed only by Mr. Delaval in a very absurd speech, which he asked pardon for not having made the day before, which was the first of his sitting in Parliament.

On 29 Jan. 1752 he supported Lord Harley’s motion against subsidy treaties in time of peace.3 Returned for Andover in 1754, he was classed as Opposition, but soon went over to the Government. He died 7 Aug. 1771.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. Spencer Schutz to Sir W. Lee, 22 Dec. 1749, Lee Pprs., Bucks. RO.
  • 2. To Mann, 13 Mar. 1751 and note.
  • 3. Walpole, Mems. Geo. II, i. 124, 254.