CHETWYND-TALBOT, Charles John, viscount Ingestre (II) (1830-1877), of Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire

A scion of the High Tory aristocracy, Ingestre was a Conservative loyalist during his Commons career. His father Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot (1803-68), viscount Ingestre (I), had represented Hertford, Armagh and Dublin in the unreformed Parliament, and was Conservative MP for South Staffordshire from 1837 until succeeding his father as 3^rd Earl Talbot in 1849.1HP Commons, 1820-1832, iv. 641-4.

When a vacancy arose in South Staffordshire, his father’s old constituency, in 1854, Ingestre was selected as the Conservative candidate and hastily returned from his travels in the United States.2The Standard, 5 Dec. 1853. During the campaign, he said that his American experience had taught him that a ‘universal franchise’ was a ‘most unfortunate one’, as ‘most of the respectable people take no interest in the elections’.3Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 14 Jan. 1854. Although he was at pains to distance himself from his father’s protectionist views, Ingestre was defeated by a convincing majority due to Liberal superiority on the register.4The Times, 10 Feb. 1854. When a vacancy arose for Lichfield in 1856, Ingestre unsuccessfully approached the Whig patron, the earl of Lichfield, about the possibility of standing.5Viscount Ingestre to earl of Lichfield, 22 May 1856, Staffordshire Record Office, D615/P(P)/4/2/1. He was, however, elected in second place as the ‘Protestant and Conservative’ candidate for the venal borough of Stafford at the 1857 general election, after bribing extensively.6Staffordshire Advertiser, 28 Mar. 1857; Hatherton Journal, 27, 28 Mar. 1857, Staffs. RO, D260/M/F/5/26/71. He again referred to his American travels that had demonstrated the ‘evils connected with the secret ballot’.7Staffordshire Advertiser, 28 Mar. 1857.

In his first parliament Ingestre voted with the Conservative leadership on most issues, and was in the majority that turned out Palmerston’s government on the conspiracy to murder bill, 19 Feb. 1858. He made a number of brief spoken contributions, including on industrial schools, building new army barracks and the mining operations of the duchy of Lancaster, 17 June 1857, 15 Feb. 1858, and 11 May 1858.8Hansard, 17 June 1857, vol. 145, c. 1954; 15 Feb. 1858, vol. 148, c. 1370; 11 May 1858, vol. 150, c. 453. Ingestre transferred to North Staffordshire at the 1859 general election. He was unopposed in a constituency where his father, who had successfully claimed the estates and title of his late kinsman the earl of Shrewsbury in 1856, had ‘the largest landed estate’.9Ralph Sneyd to Charles Bowyer Adderley, draft letter, n.d., Keele University, SC 19/3. He described Russell’s amendment that defeated the Derby government’s reform bill as ‘a most factious resolution’.10Derby Mercury, 13 Apr. 1859. He offered qualified support for an extension of the suffrage, maintaining the army and navy establishments and described the ballot as ‘un-English’.11Birmingham Daily Post, 3 May 1859.

Ingestre supported Ducane’s amendment criticising the Anglo-French commercial treaty, 24 Feb. 1860, and the following year complained that his middle-class constituents would prefer a reduction in income tax rather than the repeal of paper duties proposed by Gladstone’s budget.12Hansard, 25 Apr. 1861, vol. 162, cc. 1102-3. He opposed the 1861 borough and county franchise bills. He alleged that the navy was suffering from budget cuts, 22 Feb. 1864.13Hansard, 22 Feb. 1864, vol. 173, cc. 883-4. Ingestre strongly supported Barttelot’s motion to reduce malt duty instead of the sugar duties, in line with the demands of his agricultural constituents. He thought it would cheapen the cost of the poor man’s beer, and noted that ‘he liked a glass of beer himself’. This would also reduce the working-class consumption of spirits, which was, in his view, a major cause of crime.14Hansard, 14 Apr. 1864, vol. 174, cc. 1006-7. He expressed the opposition of Staffordshire pottery manufacturers to the extension of the Factory Acts to their trade, arguing for the measure to be referred to a select committee for further consideration, 14 June 1864.15Hansard, 14 June 1864, vol. 175, cc. 1721-2.

Despite his father’s territorial interest, Ingestre suffered from ‘unpopularity’ in his constituency, which contributed to his defeat at the 1865 general election.16Ralph Sneyd to Charles Bowyer Adderley, draft letter, n.d., Keele University, SC 19/3. His Liberal opponent claimed that Ingestre had only voted in three divisions that session.17Birmingham Daily Post, 5 July 1865. This was inaccurate, but Ingestre still had an unimpressive attendance record, voting in 11 (11%) out of 104 divisions.18Calculated from 1865 division lists, digitised by History of Parliament Trust. Ingestre opposed a £6 borough franchise and called for the franchise to be ‘extended broadways rather than lengthways’, preferably through bipartisan agreement.19Birmingham Daily Post, 5 July 1865. He attributed his defeat to ‘personal attacks on his character’.20Birmingham Daily Post, 20 July 1865. Ingestre was returned unopposed on the interest of the Conservative marquess of Exeter for a vacancy for Stamford, 4 May 1868, and had time to express his hostility to Gladstone’s Irish church bill before succeeding his father as 4th Earl Talbot and 19th earl of Shrewsbury a month later.21McCalmont’s parliamentary poll book, ed. J. Vincent and M. Stenton (8th edn., 1972), 274; Hansard, 14 May 1868, vol. 192, c. 320. He was known by the latter, senior title.

Shrewsbury ‘frequently attended meetings in connection with Conservative institutions and Church defence’ and was appointed to the royal household, as captain of the honourable corps of gentlemen at arms, by Disraeli in 1875, and made a privy councillor in the same year.22Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 12 May 1877. He died suddenly in 1877 of ‘syncope of the heart’ (cardiac arrhythmia).23The Times, 12 May 1877. Shrewsbury’s younger brothers Walter Cecil Chetwynd-Talbot (later Carpenter, 1834-1904) and Reginald Arthur James Chetwynd-Talbot (1841-1929), were Conservative MPs for County Waterford, 1859-65, and Stafford, 1869-74, respectively.24M. Stenton, Who’s who of British Members of Parliament (1976), i. 371-2. On his death, Shrewsbury’s titles and estates passed to his only son Charles Henry John Chetwynd-Talbot (1860-1921), 20th earl of Shrewsbury.25Burke’s peerage and baronetage (1949), 1835-6.