Family and Education

b. July 1785, s. and h. of Samuel Crompton of Wood End by Sarah, da. of Samuel Fox of Derby. educ. Charterhouse 1798-1801; Trinity Coll. Camb. 1804. m. 3 Nov. 1829, Isabella Sophia, da. of Rev. the Hon. Archibald Hamilton Cathcart, vicar of Kippax, Yorks. and preb. of York, 4da. suc. fa. 1810; cr. Bt. 28 June 1838.

Offices Held

Capt. 4 N. Riding militia 1809.

Biography

Crompton’s father, a Derby banker and twice mayor of that borough, made a ‘country gentleman’ of his son. He was presumably the ‘Mr Crompton’ admitted to Brooks’s Club on 10 June 1811 at the instigation of the Duke of Devonshire. By 1817 he was desirous of a seat in Parliament and Foljambe, recorder of East Retford, recommended him to Earl Fitzwilliam for his covert support there. Crompton’s canvass in January 1818 was ‘very successful’ and he came in unopposed in June.

Crompton acted with opposition in the House, though his attendance was not steady from March 1819 in his first session. He voted against public lotteries, for burgh reform and for Tierney’s censure motion, 4, 6 and 18 May. He first spoke on 2 Dec. 1819, when he exculpated the North Riding of Yorkshire from charges of disaffection and advocated the localization of the seditious meetings prevention bill. Throughout that session he opposed repressive measures and was one of the few Members who voted for consideration of Robert Owen’s philanthropic scheme, 16 Dec. ‘A warm patron of agriculture’, Crompton died 27 Dec. 1848.

The Late Elections (1818), 506; Wentworth Woodhouse mun. F49/33-35, 46, 48, 49; Gent. Mag. (1848), i. 317.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes