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RAMSBOTTOM, John (c.1780-1845), of Clewer Lodge, nr. Windsor, Berks.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Biography Detail
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. c.1780, 1st s. of John Ramsbottom, brewer and banker, of Windsor. educ. Eton 1791. m. 21 May 1799,1 Sophia Augusta Prior of Portland Place, Mdx., 2s. 2da. suc. fa. 1826.
Offices Held
Cornet, 16 Drag. 1798, lt. 1799, ret. 1803; maj. commdt. Clewer vols. 1803.
Dep. chairman, Hope Life Insurance Co. 1827-43.
Biography
Ramsbottom, whose military career was brief, was probably admitted to a partnership in the Windsor ale brewery and London distillery owned by his father and uncle, Richard Ramsbottom*, in 1801. He also shared in their local and London banking activities. The Lombard Street bank stopped payment in 1819, but he continued to operate the Windsor enterprise in partnership with a Mr Legh until about 1838, when he evidently disposed of his business concerns.2
In March 1810 Ramsbottom replaced his uncle in the Windsor seat which he had captured for the independent interest and which John went on to occupy for over 35 years. His few recorded votes in his first Parliament were all with government: against the release of Gale Jones, 16 Apr. 1810, on the Regency bill, 1 Jan. 1811, against the abolition of the sinecure paymastership, 24 Feb., and against Stuart Wortley’s motion for the formation of a stronger administration, 21 May 1812.
He was accordingly reckoned a supporter of government in the Treasury list compiled after the 1812 general election, but his parliamentary behaviour took an independent turn from this point. He opposed government on the 1815 corn bill; on economies at the Admiralty, 17 and 25 Feb.; the suspension of habeas corpus, 23 and 27 June 1817; the indemnity bill, 11 Mar. 1818; Bank restriction, 2 Feb.; the coal duties, 20 May; the finances, 7 June; Buxton’s attempt to limit the operation of the seditious meetings bill to three years, 6 Dec., and the sureties clause of the stamp duties bill, 20 Dec.; but voted with them on the blasphemous libels bill, 23 Dec. 1819. He did not vote on Tierney’s motion on the state of the nation, 18 May 1819. He voted for inquiry into safeguards as a prelude to granting Catholic relief, 11 May, but subsequently voted for the first clause of the relief bill, 24 May 1813, and for the principle of emancipation, 9 May 1817. He is not known to have spoken in the House before 1820. He died 8 Oct. 1845.
