Family and Education

m. Catherine.1

Offices Held

Capt. Col. Lucas’s Ft. 1715, 7 Drags. 1726, half-pay 1729; equerry to George II 1730-d.

Biography

Connected with Philip, Duke of Wharton, Lloyd was probably the man of that name present at the drinking bout between Sir Christopher Musgrave and Wharton in 1723.2 In that year he was put up by Wharton for Saltash, where he was successful after lavish entertainments, the bills for which were never paid.3 Though elected as an opposition candidate, he attached himself to Walpole, for which Wharton revenged himself by writing:

Dear Lloyd, they say, you’re Walpole’s ferret,

To hunt him out poor Molly Skerrett,

And thus are grown by vices sinister,

A pimp to such a scrub minister;

Stick to your usual voting trade,

Nor Chetwynd’s rights presume to invade,

To purchase Molly to his bed.4

In 1724 he eloped with a Miss Cade, who had ‘£5,000 while he had nothing, but they have set up coach and chariot and make a great flutter.’5 In 1727 he applied to Walpole for financial assistance towards the cost of his election for Aylesbury:

As I would not detain you the last time I had the honour of waiting upon you at Chelsea, to give you a true account of my affairs at Aylesbury I hope you will pardon the liberty I now take of doing it. I have been at £500 expense there, and though I am assured my interest there is so strong that no opposition can hurt, yet my agents let me know I must provide £400 more in case of necessity; now Sir, what I would humbly beg of you is, to lend me £300, which I will most faithfully repay in a short time. The reason that obliges me to apply to you is, Mr. Manning’s being at Honiton (where he stays till the election is over) who is the trustee for my wife, and consequently without his being in town, I have it not in my power to raise one shilling upon the rent and judgement due to me from the Duke of Wharton and which is my all. I hope Sir Robert Walpole knows me so well, as to be assured I don’t mean to deceive him, and not repay him again with the utmost gratitude.6

Losing his seat when he had to seek re-election on being appointed equerry to the King in 1730, but returned by the Administration for Christchurch in 1732 and for Lostwithiel in 1734, he voted with them in every recorded division.

He died 18 Mar. 1735.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. His admon. 1735.
• 2. Lewis Melville, Philip, Duke of Wharton, 90.
• 3. W. P. Courtney, Parl. Rep. Cornw. 155.
• 4. Melville, 117. 'Chetwynd' refers to Walter, 1st Visct. Chetwynd.
• 5. HMC Hastings, iii. 1-2.
• 6. Aug. 1727, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss.