WHITMORE, Thomas II (1782-1846), of Apley Park, Salop.

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

Constituency

Dates

1806 - 1831

Family and Education

b. 16 Nov. 1782, 1st s. of Thomas Whitmore I* by 2nd w. educ. Eton 1796-9; Christ Church, Oxf. 1799. m. 19 July 1804, Catherine, da. and h. of Thomas Thomason, MD, of York, 3s. 3da. suc. fa 1795.

Offices Held

Recorder, Bridgnorth 1805-36; sheriff, Salop 1805-6.

Biography

Whitmore came in for Bridgnorth on the family interest at the first general election after his coming of age; during his minority his father’s cousin John Whitmore had been his locum tenens. He faced no contest in this period and made no known speeches at Westminster before 1820. His hunting friends Sir Edward Pryse Lloyd and Sir Thomas Mostyn were staunch Whigs and in April 1807 the Marquess of Buckingham expected him to share their views:1 in this he was wrong, though Whitmore was evidently a ‘staunch’ friend of the abolition of the slave trade. He generally supported successive administrations, when present. There were exceptions. On 17 Mar. 1809 he opposed Perceval’s proposals on the Duke of York affair. He was listed ‘government’ by the Whigs in 1810, after he had voted with ministers on the address, but he did not muster on the Scheldt question. He voted with government on the Regency, 1 Jan. 1811. On 3 Mar. 1812 he paired in favour of the orders in council.

Whitmore was on the Treasury list after the election of 1812. He voted against Catholic relief, 2 Mar. 1813, being absent with leave in May. He rallied to government on the army estimates, 6 and 8 Mar. 1816, but opposed the renewal of the property tax, 18 Mar., and joined the minority against the Admiralty secretaries’ salaries, 20 Mar. He was also in the minority on the composition of the finance committee, 7 Feb. 1817. Government secured his support on questions arising out of the suspension of habeas corpus, 10 and 11 Feb. 1818. In the ensuing Parliament he further supported them on Wyndham Quin’s* case, 29 Mar., and (interrupting a leave of absence) against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May 1819.

In 1811 Whitmore began to rebuild Apley. A year later he became a partner in the London bank of Chatteris, Whitmore & Co. He died 6 Feb. 1846, ‘a firm and staunch supporter of the institutions of his country both in Church and State’.2

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Authors: Lawrence Taylor / R. G. Thorne

Notes

  • 1. Fremantle mss D/FR box 46, Buckingham to Fremantle [5 Apr. 1807].
  • 2. Hilton Price, London Bankers, 176; Gent. Mag. (1846), i. 434.