BRAND, Thomas (1749-94), of The Hoo, Kimpton, Herts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1774 - 1780

Family and Education

b. 17 Sept. 1749, 1st s. of Thomas Brand. educ. Westminster (there 1764); Trinity, Camb. 1765. m. 20 Apr. 1771, Gertrude, da. of Charles Roper; she suc. her bro. as Baroness Dacre 4 July 1794, 2s. 1da. suc. fa. Aug. 1770.

Offices Held

Biography

Brand first attempted to enter Parliament at the Cambridgeshire by-election of 1770. Recommended to Lord Hardwicke by the Duke of Bedford as a promising ‘Whig’, and by Lord Temple as a ‘young gentleman of great figure and fortune ... and of a generous and independent spirit’,1 he himself wrote: ‘A considerable part of my estate lies in that county [Cambridgeshire], and in the neighbourhood of it, which gives me a natural right to offer my services on the present occasion.’2 But the county considered him as ‘an entire stranger’,3 and Brand declined a few days before the poll, receiving £1000 compensation from Sir Sampson Gideon.4

In 1774 Brand was returned unopposed at Arundel on the interest of the Duke of Norfolk.5 He is known to have voted in only two divisions, on the Middlesex election, 22 Feb. 1775, and the Address, 26 Oct. 1775, each time in opposition. In a broadsheet published by J. Almon, 1780, recording 6 divisions between April 1777 and April 1780, he is described as ‘out of the kingdom’. There is no record of his having spoken in the House, and he did not stand in 1780. He was a candidate at the Cambridgeshire by-election of 1789: ‘I stand upon the most independent grounds’, he wrote to Philip Yorke, ‘and trust that I shall consequently be obnoxious to no party’,6 but there was ‘such a unanimity’7 of support for the other candidate, James Whorwood Adeane, that Brand withdrew before the poll.

He died 21 Feb. 1794.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

  • 1. Add. 35680, f. 267.
  • 2. Ibid. f. 257.
  • 3. Sir John Hynde Cotton to Hardwicke, 28 Oct. 1770, ibid. f. 262.
  • 4. Edw. Leeds to Hardwicke, 16 Nov. 1770, ibid. f. 283.
  • 5. ‘Tomkins Diary’, 37 (Suss. Arch. Colls. lxxi).
  • 6. 7 May 1789, Add. 35685, f. 51.
  • 7. Sir John Hynde Cotton to Hardwicke, 4 May 1789.