TREVANION, William (1727-67), of Carhayes, nr. Tregony, Cornw.

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

1747 - 24 Jan. 1767

Family and Education

b. 15 Mar. 1727, o. surv. s. of John Trevanion, M.P. for Tregony and Cornw., by his 2nd w. Barbara, da. of William, 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton.  educ. ?Eton; Ch. Ch. Oxf. 1744.  m. 19 May 1758, Ann, da. of George Barlow, M.P., of Slebech, Pemb., s.p.  suc. fa. 15 Dec. 1740, ‘heir to £4,000 p.a.’1

Offices Held

Groom of the bedchamber to Prince of Wales Apr. 1749-Mar. 1751; auditor of duchy of Cornwall June 1751- d.

Biography

Trevanion sat at Tregony on his family interest. He was a close friend of Edward Eliot, and in Newcastle’s list of 1754 was included in the Nugent-Eliot group, friendly to Administration. Eliot had ‘absolutely’ Trevanion’s vote in Parliament, wrote Newcastle to Hardwicke, 10 Oct. 1756; in 1758 he acquired jointly with Eliot the patronage of Grampound; in 1761 Newcastle sent Trevanion his parliamentary whip through Eliot; and in December 1761 he was marked in Bute’s parliamentary list as ‘Nugent and Government’. Newcastle wrote on 11 Feb. 1762 in his ‘Memorandums for Lord Bute’: ‘Mr. Trevanion, groom of the bedchamber to the late Prince of Wales, to be groom of the bedchamber to the King, or an additional salary to his place in Cornwall.’ He received neither.2

Trevanion is not in Fox’s list of Members in favour of the peace preliminaries but did not vote against them either. In the autumn of 1763 he was classed by Jenkinson as ‘doubtful’; and his only recorded vote in Parliament was given over general warrants, 18 Feb. 1764, on the Opposition side. In the summer of 1765 Rockingham marked him as ‘doubtful’—he was an independent country gentleman of whom parliamentary managers were not certain. In November 1766 Rockingham listed him as ‘absent’; and Townshend in January 1767 as ‘Government’. Apparently he never spoke in Parliament.  He died 24 Jan. 1767.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Sir Lewis Namier

Notes

  • 1. Gent. Mag. 1740, p. 413.
  • 2. Add. 32868, f. 173; 32929, f. 450; 32934, f. 276.