Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet

Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Baronet, PC, FRS (20 December 1781 – 24 May 1849) was a British Tory politician. He held office under Sir Robert Peel as Paymaster of the Forces between 1834 and 1835 and as Paymaster General between 1841 and 1845.

Sir Edward Knatchbull
Portrait of Knatchbull by Thomas Phillips
Paymaster General
In office
8 September 1841  1 March 1845
Prime MinisterSir Robert Peel, Bt
Preceded byHon. Edward Stanley
Succeeded byHon. Bingham Baring
Paymaster of the Forces
In office
23 December 1834  8 April 1835
Prime MinisterSir Robert Peel, Bt
Preceded byLord John Russell
Succeeded bySir Henry Parnell, Bt
Personal details
Born20 December 1781 (1781-12-20)
Died24 May 1849 (1849-05-25) (aged 67)
Mersham Hatch, Kent
NationalityBritish
Political partyTory/Ultra-Tory
Spouse(s)(1) Annabella Honywood
(d. 1814)
(2) Fanny Knight
(1793-1882)
Parent(s)Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Baronet (Father)
Mary Knatchbull (Mother)
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford

Background and education

Knatchbull was the son of Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Baronet, and Mary, daughter and heiress of William Western Hugessen, of Provender House in Norton, Kent,[1] and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and matriculated in 1800.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1802[2] and was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1803. In 1819 he succeeded in the baronetcy on the death of his father.

Political career

Knatchbull was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kent at a by-election in November 1819, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father.[3][4] He held the seat until the 1831 general election,[5] which he did not contest. The Reform Act 1832 split the Kent county constituency into Eastern and Western divisions, and at the 1832 general election Knatchbull and John Pemberton Plumptre were elected as Members for the new Eastern division of Kent.[6] Knatchbull held that seat until his resignation[7][8] in early 1845[5] by taking the Chiltern Hundreds.[7]

In 1829 he became one of the leaders of the "Ultra-Tories" who were opposed to Catholic emancipation in Ireland. Sworn of the Privy Council in 1834,[9] he served under Sir Robert Peel as Paymaster of the Forces between 1834 and 1835 and as Paymaster General between 1841 and 1845.[10]

Family

Knatchbull married twice. His first wife was Annabella Christiana Honywood, daughter of Sir John Honywood, 4th Baronet. They married on 25 August 1806 and had six children:

  • Mary Louisa Knatchbull (b. 1808)
  • Mary Dorothea Knatchbull (d. 1838), who married in 1826 Edward Knight[11]
  • Sir Norton Joseph Knatchbull, 10th Baronet (1808–1868), who married in 1831 Mary Watts-Russell. They were parents of the 11th and the 12th Baronets.
  • (child, d. 1818)

Annabella died in childbirth in 1814 and on 24 October 1820, Knatchbull married secondly Fanny Catherine Knight, daughter of Edward Knight (né Edward Austen, the brother of English novelist Jane Austen). They had nine children, including:

Knatchbull died in May 1849, aged 67, at the family's Mersham Hatch estate in Kent, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son from his first marriage, Norton. Lady Knatchbull died in December 1882.

References

  1. Portrait of William Western Hugessen (1736-64) by Andrea Soldi, Sotheby's. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  2. "Lists of Royal Society Fellows". Retrieved 15 December 2006.
  3. "No. 17538". The London Gazette. 23 November 1819. p. 2090.
  4. Stooks Smith, Henry. (1973) [1844-1850]. Craig, F. W. S. (ed.). The Parliaments of England (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 157. ISBN 0-900178-13-2.
  5. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "K" (part 1)
  6. "No. 19009". The London Gazette. 1 January 1833. p. 4.
  7. "No. 20450". The London Gazette. 4 March 1845. p. 712.
  8. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 403. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
  9. "No. 19221". The London Gazette. 16 December 1834. p. 2266.
  10. "No. 20017". The London Gazette. 10 September 1841. p. 2274.
  11. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, volume 1, page 478, 2003
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