Family and Education

b. c.1735, s. of John Duntze, merchant, of Exeter by Elizabeth, da. of James Hawker or Hawkes of Luppit, nr. Honiton, wid. of Nicholas Munckley of Exeter. m. in or bef. 1765,1 Frances, da. of Samuel Lewis, 3s. 3da. cr. Bt. 8 Nov. 1774.

Offices Held

Biography

Duntze, the son of an immigrant Bremen merchant, was an Exeter clothier and general merchant and a partner in the Exeter Bank (Duntze, Sanders, Hamilton & Co.). His involvement with the London banking house of Halliday, Duntze, Praed & Co. evidently ended in the 1780s.

He voted with government on the Regency question and presumably continued to do so after his unopposed return for Tiverton, where he shared control with the Ryder family at the general election of 1790, though he was so hideously tormented by gout that he was probably an infrequent attender. Indeed in April 1791, the comment on him was ‘never attends’.2 He is not known to have spoken in the House in this period. In 1791 he wrote to Pitt seeking employment for his distressed eldest son, who was duly appointed a lottery commissioner the following year.3

Financial problems as well as ill health clouded Duntze’s later years and on his death, 5 Feb. 1795, he left his family in straitened circumstances.4

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Authors: P. A. Symonds / David R. Fisher

Notes

• 1. His eldest son d. 21 June 1830, ‘aged 65’ (CB, v. 182).
• 2. Gent. Mag. (1786), i. 108; N. and Q. clxx (1936), 204; NLS 11203, ff. 161-76.
• 3. PRO 30/8/131, ff. 130, 132; Gent. Mag. (1792), i. 485.
• 4. N. and Q. loc. cit.