Lord Magan of Castletown
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colinp
Jul 18, 2023, 5:22:15 AM7/18/23
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The Minutes of the House of Lords proceedings 17 July 2023 record that Lord Magan of Castletown took the Oath to the King yesterday. He had been declared bankrupt on 8 Sept 2020 and became ineligible to sit in the Lords. I take it therefore that the bankruptcy order has now been discharged.
S. S.
Jul 18, 2023, 9:16:53 AM7/18/23
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How common has bankruptcy been amongst the member of the House of Lords, i.e. peers?
S.S.
dpth...@gmail.com
Jul 18, 2023, 10:53:35 AM7/18/23
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I suppose that it partly depends on whether "bankruptcy" means a legal declaration of bankruptcy, or whether it includes persons who incurred huge debts and were considered financially ruined.
I don't have a list of Peers, but "History of Parliament Online" has surveys of members during various periods, and the excerpt below, from the survey of members of the House of Commons between 1820 and 1832, is interesting. (A few peers are mentioned.)
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/survey/vi-members
"Some 90 Members are known to have become enmeshed in serious financial difficulties or been ruined. At least 14 fled abroad, usually to France (but in two cases to America), and of these half died in exile. About the same number were arrested for debt when not enjoying parliamentary immunity from such humiliation. John Wharton died in debtors’ prison, and William Burge did not long survive his release on health grounds. A favoured few were rescued by securing appointments from sympathetic governments: Sir Edward Hyde East, Sir Alexander ‘Chin’ Grant, Lord Nugent and Sir George Hill are cases in point. Some once prosperous men ended their days at liberty, but in wretched circumstances: Charles Palmer was reduced to begging in the streets of London; Richard Wellesley and Lord Bury went mad; William Pole Tylney Long Wellesley was sustained by a £10 weekly allowance from his cousin, the 2nd duke of Wellington; Lord Chandos, as 2nd duke of Buckingham, was a virtual beggar when he died in 1861; and John Fitzgerald died a broken man, babbling about his ill-fated Lancashire mining enterprises.
Failures in business ruined about 30 Members. Some two dozen were gazetted as bankrupts, ten of them in this period. Bankers who failed were Robert Crickitt, John Maberly (his 1832 bankruptcy prompted widespread schadenfreude), Sir Peter Pole, Robert Stanton and the embezzler Rowland Stephenson, in this period; and John Ramsbottom and John Ward later. Among the entrepreneurs, David Barclay, Frederick Gye, John Innes, William Mayhew, Richard Sanderson, George Schonswar, Christopher Spurrier, William Ward and Henry Winchester came to grief, all except Schonswar and Spurrier after 1832. The declining fortunes of the West India interest did for John Plummer (who recovered) in 1830, and William Manning (who turned to religion) and the crook Charles Pallmer (who fled the scene) in 1831. Later sufferers by the abolition of slavery were ‘Chin’ Grant, Sir John Rae Reid, George Watson Taylor and James Wilson. Land speculation and ambitious urban development schemes went disastrously wrong for Thomas Claughton (1824) and William Madocks (1826), and subsequently for Thomas Kemp, Charles Palmer and Joseph Pitt. William Cavendish (as duke of Devonshire) ran into difficulties with the development of his Eastbourne property. Peter Moore, whose defeat at Coventry in 1826 robbed him of his shield of parliamentary privilege, and John Wilks II were ruined in this period through their involvement in dubious ‘bubble’ joint-stock companies. The losses sustained by James Brougham in similar activities contributed to the debts of about £16,000 which he left on his death in 1833; his brother Henry, the lord chancellor, was obliged to pay them in order to avoid the embarrassment of a gazetted bankruptcy. Fitzgerald’s ruinous coal mining venture has already been mentioned. Sir Stephen Richard Glynne and John Christian Curwen were other landowners who suffered financially in the same way; Curwen died in 1828 with debts of £118,000. General extravagance and financial imprudence caused problems for several landowner Members: Chandos, Long Wellesley and William Powell are extreme examples. Some struggled with encumbered estates and were forced to sell off property: this fate befell Lord Belfast (as 3rd marquess of Donegall), John Prendergast Vereker (as 3rd Viscount Gort), who died in penury, and the alcoholic madman Robert Henry King (as 4th earl of Kingston). Electioneering contributed to the problems experienced by Ralph Benson, Sir Francis Blake, Thomas Calley, Ralph Etwall, Long Wellesley, Dick Martin (who had to flee to France to evade his creditors when he was unseated on petition in 1827), Sir John Osborn and Sir John Owen; but many Members overstretched themselves in this line. The compulsive gamblers included Tommy Duncombe, Etwall, Lord Charles Fitzroy, who had to sell his army commission and was shunned by Bury St. Edmunds tradesmen, Lord Bury, the brave soldier Frank Russell, who left debts of £35,000 at his early death, Spurrier, who was said to have wagered and lost his last silver teapot on a maggot race, and Lord Edward Thynne. Their fellow aristocrats Lord Charles Spencer Churchill and Lord William Paget spent their indulgent fathers’ money with reckless abandon. A more innocent victim was the nabob Michael Prendergast, who vainly pursued a claim for compensation from the East India Company, but died unrewarded and in straitened circumstances."
I don't have a list of Peers, but "History of Parliament Online" has surveys of members during various periods, and the excerpt below, from the survey of members of the House of Commons between 1820 and 1832, is interesting. (A few peers are mentioned.)
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/survey/vi-members
"Some 90 Members are known to have become enmeshed in serious financial difficulties or been ruined. At least 14 fled abroad, usually to France (but in two cases to America), and of these half died in exile. About the same number were arrested for debt when not enjoying parliamentary immunity from such humiliation. John Wharton died in debtors’ prison, and William Burge did not long survive his release on health grounds. A favoured few were rescued by securing appointments from sympathetic governments: Sir Edward Hyde East, Sir Alexander ‘Chin’ Grant, Lord Nugent and Sir George Hill are cases in point. Some once prosperous men ended their days at liberty, but in wretched circumstances: Charles Palmer was reduced to begging in the streets of London; Richard Wellesley and Lord Bury went mad; William Pole Tylney Long Wellesley was sustained by a £10 weekly allowance from his cousin, the 2nd duke of Wellington; Lord Chandos, as 2nd duke of Buckingham, was a virtual beggar when he died in 1861; and John Fitzgerald died a broken man, babbling about his ill-fated Lancashire mining enterprises.
Failures in business ruined about 30 Members. Some two dozen were gazetted as bankrupts, ten of them in this period. Bankers who failed were Robert Crickitt, John Maberly (his 1832 bankruptcy prompted widespread schadenfreude), Sir Peter Pole, Robert Stanton and the embezzler Rowland Stephenson, in this period; and John Ramsbottom and John Ward later. Among the entrepreneurs, David Barclay, Frederick Gye, John Innes, William Mayhew, Richard Sanderson, George Schonswar, Christopher Spurrier, William Ward and Henry Winchester came to grief, all except Schonswar and Spurrier after 1832. The declining fortunes of the West India interest did for John Plummer (who recovered) in 1830, and William Manning (who turned to religion) and the crook Charles Pallmer (who fled the scene) in 1831. Later sufferers by the abolition of slavery were ‘Chin’ Grant, Sir John Rae Reid, George Watson Taylor and James Wilson. Land speculation and ambitious urban development schemes went disastrously wrong for Thomas Claughton (1824) and William Madocks (1826), and subsequently for Thomas Kemp, Charles Palmer and Joseph Pitt. William Cavendish (as duke of Devonshire) ran into difficulties with the development of his Eastbourne property. Peter Moore, whose defeat at Coventry in 1826 robbed him of his shield of parliamentary privilege, and John Wilks II were ruined in this period through their involvement in dubious ‘bubble’ joint-stock companies. The losses sustained by James Brougham in similar activities contributed to the debts of about £16,000 which he left on his death in 1833; his brother Henry, the lord chancellor, was obliged to pay them in order to avoid the embarrassment of a gazetted bankruptcy. Fitzgerald’s ruinous coal mining venture has already been mentioned. Sir Stephen Richard Glynne and John Christian Curwen were other landowners who suffered financially in the same way; Curwen died in 1828 with debts of £118,000. General extravagance and financial imprudence caused problems for several landowner Members: Chandos, Long Wellesley and William Powell are extreme examples. Some struggled with encumbered estates and were forced to sell off property: this fate befell Lord Belfast (as 3rd marquess of Donegall), John Prendergast Vereker (as 3rd Viscount Gort), who died in penury, and the alcoholic madman Robert Henry King (as 4th earl of Kingston). Electioneering contributed to the problems experienced by Ralph Benson, Sir Francis Blake, Thomas Calley, Ralph Etwall, Long Wellesley, Dick Martin (who had to flee to France to evade his creditors when he was unseated on petition in 1827), Sir John Osborn and Sir John Owen; but many Members overstretched themselves in this line. The compulsive gamblers included Tommy Duncombe, Etwall, Lord Charles Fitzroy, who had to sell his army commission and was shunned by Bury St. Edmunds tradesmen, Lord Bury, the brave soldier Frank Russell, who left debts of £35,000 at his early death, Spurrier, who was said to have wagered and lost his last silver teapot on a maggot race, and Lord Edward Thynne. Their fellow aristocrats Lord Charles Spencer Churchill and Lord William Paget spent their indulgent fathers’ money with reckless abandon. A more innocent victim was the nabob Michael Prendergast, who vainly pursued a claim for compensation from the East India Company, but died unrewarded and in straitened circumstances."
dpth...@gmail.com
Jul 18, 2023, 11:42:21 AM7/18/23
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From the Survey of HoC members 1754-1790 (also containing some peers):
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/survey/iii-members
"These success stories have their counterpart in the Members who fell from affluence to poverty and who ended by clinging to their parliamentary seats as the last refuge from their creditors. Sir Charles Frederick, after over thirty years’ service as an Ordnance official, begged to be allowed to retain his seat for Queenborough in 1782: ‘he was so poor he was afraid of the Fleet or King’s Bench prison’. Sir Alexander Gilmour, M.P. for Edinburghshire 1761-1774, who had been an officer in the Guards and had held court employment for fourteen years, ended his life at Boulogne, piteously begging for a pension. General John Irwin, M.P. for East Grinstead 1762-1783, was a great favourite of George III and the very model of a fine gentleman. But he did not have the income to sustain the part, and in 1783 had to decamp to the Continent; when he died in Italy in 1788, the King sent £500 to his widow to enable her and her children to come home. John Jeffreys represented the Government borough of Dartmouth 1747-1766 and for most of this period had to be kept by Government. These are examples of men who ruined themselves through their general extravagance or disregard of Mr. Micawber’s maxim; but in addition there were three distinct ways in which a man could ruin himself during this period. ‘Wine, women, and song’ are said to be the surest paths to moral and financial degradation; in the eighteenth century speculation, building, and women led to the same end.
Sir George Colebrooke, M.P. for Arundel 1754-1774, was a leading London merchant and banker, for many years a director of the East India Company and its chairman in 1769, 1770 and 1772. He engaged in speculative activities of various kinds: in West India land, in Scottish estates, and in East India stock; but it was his attempt to corner the supply of certain raw materials (principally alum, flax, hemp, and logwood) which brought about his downfall. The financial crisis of 1772 entangled him in hopeless difficulties, his bank stopped payment, his property (including his parliamentary interest at Gatton) had to be sold, and in 1777 he was declared bankrupt. The former chairman of the East India Company had to retire to Boulogne on a pension of £,200 a year granted by the Company and was grateful for the loan of £500 from Rockingham to enable him to send his son to India. His friend Sir James Cockburn, M.P. for Linlithgow Burghs 1772-1784, who had been a commissary in Germany and a director of the East India Company, ruined himself through lending money to Indian princes and went bankrupt in 1781. Lord North helped him by giving Cockburn’s wife a secret service pension of £800 a year, which was continued by succeeding Administrations. ‘In the extremest distress’, Cockburn lost his seat in Parliament at the general election of 1784; but subsequently, largely through the efforts of his sons, overcame his financial difficulties.
Building and collecting (the two activities are psychologically connected) were the downfall of a number of M.P.s. Probably the most prominent were Joseph Gulston, M.P. 1765-1768 and 1780-1784, and Lord Verney, M.P. 1753-1784 and 1790-1791. Gulston’s father had been a merchant, but Gulston abandoned the business, built himself an Italian villa at Ealing, and began to amass the finest collection of prints in England. According to Horace Walpole, in his eagerness to build up his collection he paid extravagant prices and forced other collectors to do the same. By 1784 he was ruined; he was defeated at Poole at the general election, and was compelled to sell his collection. Over 60,000 prints were sold, but they brought only £7,000.
Lord Verney began life with the fairest prospects: he was one of the largest landowners in Buckinghamshire, controlled the borough of Wendover and had a considerable interest at Great Bedwyn, and was liked and respected by his neighbours. He set out determined to rival in magnificence and display the Grenvilles of Stowe, the leading family in the county; spent profusely on building, on pictures and works of art; and is thus described in Lipscomb’s History of Buckinghamshire:
Lavish in his personal expenses and fond of show, he was one of the last of the English nobility who, to the splendour of a gorgeous equipage attached musicians constantly attendant upon him, not only on state occasions but in his journeys and visits: a brace of tall negroes with silver French horns behind his coach and six, perpetually making a noise.
To these extravagances he added others of an even more dangerous character: in 1766 he began speculating in East India stock, but the slump of 1769 left him with large liabilities and debts which he could not collect. Verney’s political friends the Rockinghams did nothing for him when they returned to power in 1782; and, defeated for Buckinghamshire in 1784, he had to go to France to escape arrest for debt. ‘Your situation is awful and lamented by all honest men’, wrote one of his friends, and it improved little during the remainder of his life though he regained his seat for Buckinghamshire in 1790.
John Norris, M.P. for Rye 1762-1774, like his father was a faithful follower of the Duke of Newcastle, but as he did not enter Parliament until shortly before the Duke’s fall the connexion was of little financial benefit to him. He was also ‘a great dupe to the sex’, with ‘such attachment to women of no character as is extraordinary’. His first wife was the famous Kitty Fisher, Sir Joshua Reynolds’s model, a high-class society prostitute; his second wife was divorced on his account, for which he had to pay £3,000 damages. Norris sold his estates, and the loss of his seat in Parliament in 1774 forced him to flee to the Continent. He returned in 1795 to plead unsuccessfully with Newcastle’s old friend, the Duke of Portland, for a place under Government.
John Proby, 1st Baron Carysfort, M.P. 1747-1768, was another who ruined himself by what Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu called ‘an enormous expense in kept women’. ‘His credit has been so bad for a long time’, continued Mrs. Montagu, ‘that the butcher in the country would not trust him for a joint of meat nor bakers for a loaf of bread.’ On the whole, elections were a far less expensive way of diverting oneself. Only one man in this period is known to have ruined himself through elections—Hans Winthrop Mortimer, who spent a considerable fortune in cultivating an interest in the venal borough of Shaftesbury, and ended his life a prisoner for debt in the Fleet. Gambling, surprisingly enough, ruined few Members; and at least two Members lived largely by gambling: John Scott of Balconie, M.P. 1754-1775, who is said to have amassed a fortune of £500,000; and Richard Vernon, M.P. 1754-1790, who by betting and horse breeding is stated to have converted ‘a slender patrimony of £3,000 into a fortune of £100,000’."
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/survey/iii-members
"These success stories have their counterpart in the Members who fell from affluence to poverty and who ended by clinging to their parliamentary seats as the last refuge from their creditors. Sir Charles Frederick, after over thirty years’ service as an Ordnance official, begged to be allowed to retain his seat for Queenborough in 1782: ‘he was so poor he was afraid of the Fleet or King’s Bench prison’. Sir Alexander Gilmour, M.P. for Edinburghshire 1761-1774, who had been an officer in the Guards and had held court employment for fourteen years, ended his life at Boulogne, piteously begging for a pension. General John Irwin, M.P. for East Grinstead 1762-1783, was a great favourite of George III and the very model of a fine gentleman. But he did not have the income to sustain the part, and in 1783 had to decamp to the Continent; when he died in Italy in 1788, the King sent £500 to his widow to enable her and her children to come home. John Jeffreys represented the Government borough of Dartmouth 1747-1766 and for most of this period had to be kept by Government. These are examples of men who ruined themselves through their general extravagance or disregard of Mr. Micawber’s maxim; but in addition there were three distinct ways in which a man could ruin himself during this period. ‘Wine, women, and song’ are said to be the surest paths to moral and financial degradation; in the eighteenth century speculation, building, and women led to the same end.
Sir George Colebrooke, M.P. for Arundel 1754-1774, was a leading London merchant and banker, for many years a director of the East India Company and its chairman in 1769, 1770 and 1772. He engaged in speculative activities of various kinds: in West India land, in Scottish estates, and in East India stock; but it was his attempt to corner the supply of certain raw materials (principally alum, flax, hemp, and logwood) which brought about his downfall. The financial crisis of 1772 entangled him in hopeless difficulties, his bank stopped payment, his property (including his parliamentary interest at Gatton) had to be sold, and in 1777 he was declared bankrupt. The former chairman of the East India Company had to retire to Boulogne on a pension of £,200 a year granted by the Company and was grateful for the loan of £500 from Rockingham to enable him to send his son to India. His friend Sir James Cockburn, M.P. for Linlithgow Burghs 1772-1784, who had been a commissary in Germany and a director of the East India Company, ruined himself through lending money to Indian princes and went bankrupt in 1781. Lord North helped him by giving Cockburn’s wife a secret service pension of £800 a year, which was continued by succeeding Administrations. ‘In the extremest distress’, Cockburn lost his seat in Parliament at the general election of 1784; but subsequently, largely through the efforts of his sons, overcame his financial difficulties.
Building and collecting (the two activities are psychologically connected) were the downfall of a number of M.P.s. Probably the most prominent were Joseph Gulston, M.P. 1765-1768 and 1780-1784, and Lord Verney, M.P. 1753-1784 and 1790-1791. Gulston’s father had been a merchant, but Gulston abandoned the business, built himself an Italian villa at Ealing, and began to amass the finest collection of prints in England. According to Horace Walpole, in his eagerness to build up his collection he paid extravagant prices and forced other collectors to do the same. By 1784 he was ruined; he was defeated at Poole at the general election, and was compelled to sell his collection. Over 60,000 prints were sold, but they brought only £7,000.
Lord Verney began life with the fairest prospects: he was one of the largest landowners in Buckinghamshire, controlled the borough of Wendover and had a considerable interest at Great Bedwyn, and was liked and respected by his neighbours. He set out determined to rival in magnificence and display the Grenvilles of Stowe, the leading family in the county; spent profusely on building, on pictures and works of art; and is thus described in Lipscomb’s History of Buckinghamshire:
Lavish in his personal expenses and fond of show, he was one of the last of the English nobility who, to the splendour of a gorgeous equipage attached musicians constantly attendant upon him, not only on state occasions but in his journeys and visits: a brace of tall negroes with silver French horns behind his coach and six, perpetually making a noise.
To these extravagances he added others of an even more dangerous character: in 1766 he began speculating in East India stock, but the slump of 1769 left him with large liabilities and debts which he could not collect. Verney’s political friends the Rockinghams did nothing for him when they returned to power in 1782; and, defeated for Buckinghamshire in 1784, he had to go to France to escape arrest for debt. ‘Your situation is awful and lamented by all honest men’, wrote one of his friends, and it improved little during the remainder of his life though he regained his seat for Buckinghamshire in 1790.
John Norris, M.P. for Rye 1762-1774, like his father was a faithful follower of the Duke of Newcastle, but as he did not enter Parliament until shortly before the Duke’s fall the connexion was of little financial benefit to him. He was also ‘a great dupe to the sex’, with ‘such attachment to women of no character as is extraordinary’. His first wife was the famous Kitty Fisher, Sir Joshua Reynolds’s model, a high-class society prostitute; his second wife was divorced on his account, for which he had to pay £3,000 damages. Norris sold his estates, and the loss of his seat in Parliament in 1774 forced him to flee to the Continent. He returned in 1795 to plead unsuccessfully with Newcastle’s old friend, the Duke of Portland, for a place under Government.
John Proby, 1st Baron Carysfort, M.P. 1747-1768, was another who ruined himself by what Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu called ‘an enormous expense in kept women’. ‘His credit has been so bad for a long time’, continued Mrs. Montagu, ‘that the butcher in the country would not trust him for a joint of meat nor bakers for a loaf of bread.’ On the whole, elections were a far less expensive way of diverting oneself. Only one man in this period is known to have ruined himself through elections—Hans Winthrop Mortimer, who spent a considerable fortune in cultivating an interest in the venal borough of Shaftesbury, and ended his life a prisoner for debt in the Fleet. Gambling, surprisingly enough, ruined few Members; and at least two Members lived largely by gambling: John Scott of Balconie, M.P. 1754-1775, who is said to have amassed a fortune of £500,000; and Richard Vernon, M.P. 1754-1790, who by betting and horse breeding is stated to have converted ‘a slender patrimony of £3,000 into a fortune of £100,000’."
S. S.
Jul 18, 2023, 11:53:11 AM7/18/23
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Thank you for the information. The History of Parliament is very useful when charting the early career of many HoC members who went on to become peers.
S.S.
dpth...@gmail.com
Jul 18, 2023, 12:16:24 PM7/18/23
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Yes, I agree.
The Surveys are some of the most interesting reading, where they gather together facts about all members and summarize them. I always find particularly interesting the sections about madmen and suicides.
dpth...@gmail.com
Jul 18, 2023, 1:46:46 PM7/18/23
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Since I began it, I might as well finish:.
From the Survey of members 1715-1754:
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/survey/appendix-vii-members
RUINED MEN
Apart from building, drink, gambling, speculation, and general extravagance, the chief cause of the ruin of Members was election expenses, which account for that of the 19 marked with an asterisk in the following list of 82 ruined men:
William Belchier
*Michael Harvey
Philip Bennet
*Sir Humphrey Howorth
Thomas Benson
John Jeffreys
John Boteler
Sir Thomas Johnson
John Thurloe Brace
Sir William Keyt
William Breton
Edward Lisle
Sir Orlando Bridgeman
*Robert Lloyd
John Bristow
Charles Long
*Henry Bromley, later Lord Montfort
Alexander Luttrell
*John Burridge
Sir George Mackenzie
Charles Caesar
*Sir Thomas Mackworth
John Caswall
Norman Macleod
George Chaffin
Charles Mason
Francis Chamberlayne
*James Medlycott
Walter Chetwynd
*Sir William Middleton
William Chetwynd
Edward Minshull
*Hon. George Cholmondeley
Arthur Moore
John Cockburn
Daniel Moore
Robert Colebrooke
William Moore
Robert Corker
Humphry Morice
John Cotton
Hon. James Murray
*George Crowle
Micajah Perry
Sir Alexander Cumming
John Pitt
Henry Cunningham
*Thomas Pitt (of Boconnoc)
Josiah Diston
Richard Powys
Hon. John Douglas
John Proby, later Lord Carysfort
Lord Drogheda
*Morgan Randyll
Edward Dunch
John Robins
Richard Eliot
Thomas Robinson
George England
Thomas Smith
John Essington
William Stephens
*Hon. Robert Fairfax
*Sir Edmund Thomas
Henry Fleetwood
*Edward Thompson
Thomas Forster
*Sir John Trelawny
Charles Frederick
Alexander Urquhart
Sir Henry Goring
*Lord Verney
David Graeme
Nicholas Vincent
Henry Grey (formerly Neville)
*John Walcot
*Patrick Haldane
William Wallis
Richard Hampden
Richard West
Lord Harley, later and Earl of Oxford
Andrew Wilkinson
Other Members who got into financial difficulties without being absolutely ruined were Sir Robert Austen, Sir Roger Bradshaigh, Thomas Chapman, Francis Clerke, Sir Robert Clifton, and Edward Gibbon, the historian’s father."
malcolm davies
Jul 18, 2023, 7:58:07 PM7/18/23
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Of course,in the 18th century there was the losses caused by the South Sea bubble.
Parliamentary campaigns could be ruinous and Anthony Trollope set this background in Dr Thorne where Frank Gresham is pressured to marry "money" because of his father's indebtedness caused by fruitless parliamentary campaigns.
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