HASKINS STILES, Benjamin (c.1684-1739), of Bowden Park, nr. Chippenham, Wilts. and Moor Park, Herts.

Benjamin Haskins Stiles’s father was partner and heir of his maternal uncle Robert Stiles (d. 1680), a wealthy Amsterdam merchant and native of Wantage, Berks. His sister married Sir John Eyles, 2nd Bt.. On inheriting his younger brother’s fortune in 1719, he acquired large estates in north Wiltshire, including Bowden Park, Bishop’s Cannings, near Devizes, and the prebend manor of Calne which carried an electoral interest in that borough.2Wilts. N. & Q. viii. 146-9, 150-1; VCH Wilts. vii. 189; see also CALNE. He also bought Moor Park and built the existing house there, which was laid out by Leoni under the superintendence of Sir James Thornhill.3VCH Herts. ii. 377-8. In 1721 he was returned as a Whig on the Eyles interest at Devizes in place of his uncle Francis Eyles, who had been expelled from the House as a director of the South Sea Company. Next year he was returned for both Calne and Devizes, choosing to serve for the latter, probably because a petition was pending at Calne. Re-elected unopposed with Sir Joseph Eyles in 1727, he voted for the Administration on the Hessians, 1730, but absented himself on the report stage of the excise bill, 1733, afterwards voting against it.4Gent. Mag. 1733, p. 580. He did not stand in 1734, dying 4 Apr. 1739.