| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Northamptonshire | 21 May 1730 – 5 Mar. 1737 |
Commr. of leather duties and land taxes 1711 – 14.
After the Tory victory in 1710, Isham was given a place worth £500 a year, which he lost when the Whigs returned to power in 1714. In 1719 he went to Italy, where his father wrote to him at Genoa:
I am glad to find your travels prove so pleasant to you, and I don’t question but your stay at Rome will be no less diverting, though I am sorry there is a person there that must make it pretty difficult how you manage in that respect.
And again:
The Pretender being now at Rome ’twill require a good deal of caution how you behave yourself in that respect, for this court have their spies in all parts.
He was presumably the Mr. Isham whose name was sent to the Pretender in 1721 as a probable supporter in the event of a rising. On his father’s death he was assured that
all agree in desiring you to supply the place of your father: the interest is entirely settled in your family, and we hope it will be best if not the only expedient to prevent any disturbance in the county.
After ‘a dear bought victory’,1E. G. Forrester, Northants. County Elections 1695-1832, pp. 40, 41, 48, 52; Stuart mss 65/16. against a Whig opponent, he was re-elected unopposed in 1734, voting with the Opposition. He died suddenly on 5 Mar. 1737, ‘a hale, strong man, not fifty years old. His servant was up with him in the morning, when he was very well, but before he could return to him found him dead.’2HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 363.