EDWARDES, William (c.1712-1801), of Johnston, nr. Haverfordwest, Pemb.

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

Constituency

Dates

1747 - 1784
6 Feb. 1786 - 13 Dec. 1801

Family and Education

b. c.1712, 2nd s. of Francis Edwardes. m. (1) his cos. Rachel (d. 14 Aug. 1760), da. of Owen Edwardes of Treffgarne, Pemb., s.p.; (2) 10 June 1762, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of William Warren of Longridge, Pemb., 1s. suc. fa. to Haverfordwest estates 15 Dec. 1725; his e. bro. Edward Henry to Warwick estates, 18 Mar. 1738, including considerable property, in Kensington; cr. Baron Kensington [I] 28 July 1776.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Pemb. 1745.

Biography

Soon after Edwardes’s return the 2nd Lord Egmont wrote of Haverfordwest in his electoral survey: ‘The best interest is in Edwardes, but his behaviour and life will probably beat him’ — a notably incorrect forecast, possibly based on his first cousin, the 7th Earl of Warwick, who was said to have ‘killed himself by his debauchery’, and his elder brother, who ‘drank himself to death’.1

In the 1747 Parliament Edwardes was classed by the ministry ‘against’, apparently as a Tory. But on 12 June 1753 Henry Fox, who had leased Holland House from him, wrote to Henry Pelham about a recommendation made relating to the filling of a government post in Pembrokeshire:

I understand Mr. Edwardes is opposed by Sir John Philipps at Haverfordwest, and I make no doubt may be brought to oppose Sir John Philipps’s principles everywhere. But my application is not political. Wells, Windsor, Malmesbury all together cannot make me so desirous of procuring a favour, as does the regard I have for my landlord, of whom I want a bit of a waste, a lease, and 2 or 3 other small layouts. If you can oblige me in this therefore I hope you will.2

Nevertheless in the next Parliament he continued to be classed as a Tory.

Though Edwardes represented Haverfordwest for over fifty years, never, so far as is known, voting against any Government, he died 13 Dec. 1801, without having attained his object, an English peerage.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

  • 1. N. & Q. (ser. 8), i. 326.
  • 2. Newcastle (Clumber) mss.