Family and Education

b. ?1721, o.s. of Sir Charles Sedley, 1st Bt., by Elizabeth, da. of William Frith of Nuthall.  educ. Westminster, Apr. 1732, aged 10; Univ. Coll. Oxf. 22 Feb. 1739, aged 17. unm.  suc. fa. 18 Feb. 1730.

Offices Held

Biography

Sedley was returned for Nottingham in 1747 as a Tory. He did not stand in 1754. About his candidature in 1774, on what was formerly the Tory interest, he wrote to Rockingham on 9 Oct.:1

I found my friends very much displeased and dissatisfied that they had never been consulted or taken the least notice of in respect to the choice of a proper person to represent them ... I must confess that I could not help uniting with them in sentiment that this was a very arbitrary proceeding, and such as we ought to resent, and ... I was very reluctantly prevailed upon to stand forth myself that so respectable an interest should not be ignored. My friends have canvassed some part of the town for me and have met with a success much beyond my most sanguine expectations.

Sedley was returned head of the poll.

During this second period in the House his only known vote was with the Opposition on Fox’s motion of 2 Feb. 1778 on the conduct of the war; and there is no record of any speech by him.  He died 23 Aug. 1778.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Rockingham mss.