biography text
In 1780 Rodney was returned unopposed for Northampton on the interest of his uncle Spencer, Lord Northampton, as a stop-gap for his cousin Charles, Lord Compton, then a minor. In Parliament he constantly supported North’s Administration till its fall; voted for Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783; for Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783, and both in Robinson’s list of January 1784 and Stockdale’s of 19 Mar. appears as a supporter of Pitt’s Administration. His only reported speech was on 5 June 1782 when, Fox moving a new writ for Westminster, he confirmed that his father intended to accept a peerage. Rodney did not stand in 1784, nor apparently at any other time.
He died 2 Jan. 1802.