COCKAYNE CUST (formerly CUST), Francis (1722-91), of Cockayne Hatley, Beds.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

2 Feb. 1770 - 1774
15 Mar. 1775 - 1780
1780 - 30 Nov. 1791

Family and Education

bap. 18 Mar. 1722, 3rd s. of Sir Richard Cust, 2nd Bt., of Leesingham, Lincs. by Anne, da. of Sir William Brownlow, 4th Bt., sis. and h. of John Brownlow, 1st Visct. Tyrconnel [I]. educ. Grantham g.s.; Eton 1733-9; King’s, Camb. 1738, fellow 1742; M. Temple 1735, called 1742. unm. suc. uncle Savile Cockayne 1772 and took name of Cockayne before Cust.

Offices Held

Dep. recorder, Grantham 1752, Boston 1760; KC 24 July 1772; bencher, M. Temple 1772, reader 1780, treasurer 1784; recorder, Grantham 1780.

Counsel to Admiralty Mar. 1770-d.; also to Camb. Univ.

Biography

On 2 Jan. 1790 Cockayne Cust applied to Pitt to become auditor of Greenwich Hospital, a place worth £100 p.a. which had been customarily annexed to his office of counsel to the Admiralty before Lord North’s time. His impression that Lord Auckland intended to resign the auditorship proved erroneous. He continued to sit for Grantham on his family’s interest, but made no mark in his last Parliament. Owing to his deafness and irritability, his attendance and conduct had long been in doubt, if not obscurely construed into hostility to government; but in April 1791 he was listed absent and hostile to the repeal of the Test Act. He died 30 Nov. 1791.

PRO 30/8/127, f. 262.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: M. H. Port

Notes