HUSSEY, Thomas (1814-1894), of Bredy, Burton Bradstock, Dorset; 5 Cork Street, London and 9 St. James’s Place, London

The son of a leading figure in Lyme Regis’s unreformed Tory corporation, Hussey was seated for the borough in 1842 as a result of a petition paid for by the notorious Tory borough-monger John Attwood MP, on the understanding that he would make way for a nominee if required. Surprisingly active in the lobbies, he backed the Conservatives on most issues but broke with Peel over the Maynooth grant and the repeal of the corn laws, becoming one of the leading Protectionist Lord George Bentinck’s ‘most zealous followers’.1Taunton Courier, 28 Mar. 1894.

Hussey’s father John (1788-1848) was a great-nephew of William Hussey MP (1724-1813), who had made a fortune as a Salisbury clothier and became one of Georgian England’s longest-serving MPs.2He sat for 48 years from 1765-1813: HP Commons, 1754-90, ii. 663-4 and 1790-1820, iv. 279-80. On William’s death John had inherited his great-uncle’s family estates at Crewkerne, Mosteron and Burton Bradstock, providing him with an income of ‘above £3000 per annum’.3Somerset Heritage Centre, Hussey mss DD/HSY. He married early the following year in Lyme, where he also acquired property, and became the recorder of its unreformed corporation, controlled by the Tory Fane family (earls of Westmorland). One of its leading burgesses, John Hussey served as Lyme’s mayor from 1832-4 and acted as the returning officer at the 1832 election, when Westmorland’s son and heir attempted unsuccessfully to retain the family’s ‘pocket’ borough.4PP 1835 (116), xxiv. 1306. He was later part of an abortive attempt to delay the local implementation of the Whig ministry’s 1835 Municipal Corporations Act.5The Times, 26 Nov. 1835.

The ‘Husseys of Lyme’ were the first port of call for the town’s local Conservatives when their candidate bolted on the eve of the 1841 general election.6A. Chessell, Life and times of A. Hayward QC (2008), 74-5. Rather than allowing the sitting Liberal MP a walkover, 60 ‘free and independent’ electors opposed to his growing influence agreed to support John’s son, who had read for the bar but apparently never practised.7PP 1842 (285), vi. 248. Although ‘Tom’ Hussey, as he was known locally, lost the ensuing contest, the result was successfully challenged on petition the following year, as part of a deal with the newly elected MP for Harwich John Attwood. In return for Attwood funding the entire petition, which ‘amounted to nearly £9,000’, Hussey, ‘not liking to incur so heavy an expense himself’ agreed to vacate the seat should it be needed for a government minister or one of Attwood’s nominees. Hussey ended up sitting until 1847, but it was only in 1845, when Attwood’s borough-mongering activities came under increasing public scrutiny, that his tenure effectively became secure.8Morning Chronicle, 30 May 1845; The Times, 8 Mar. 1848.

Given that he was effectively a ‘seat warmer’ during most of his time in the Commons, Hussey was a surprisingly assiduous attender. He is not known to have spoken in debate, but he cast an above average number of votes each session, giving regular support to the Conservative ministry on most issues before 1845. He took opposite sides to the premier on matters of electoral corruption, however, voting against motions to summon witnesses and to suspend elections in places implicated in bribery, including Belfast, 14 June 1842, Nottingham, 23 Mar. 1843, and the infamous borough of Sudbury, 1 Aug. 1843. He also opposed the ministry’s Dissenters’ chapels bill, 28 June 1844. He is not known to have served on any committees, but in 1844 he was appointed as an additional land tax commissioner in Dorset.9See 7 & 8 Vict. c. 79, p. 449.

Hussey broke with Peel over the Maynooth grant, which he opposed, 28 Apr., 21 May 1845, and the following year became a ‘strenuous opponent’ of his free trade policies, in later years ‘boasting that throughout the corn law debates he had never missed a division’.10Taunton Courier, 28 Mar. 1894. He helped to turn Peel out of office on the Irish coercion bill, 25 June 1846. He voted steadily against Catholic claims during the remainder of the Parliament and at the 1847 dissolution joined the election committee of the Protestant MP Charles Gray Round, who unsuccessfully opposed William Gladstone at Oxford University.11Oxford Journal, 5 June 1847.

Hussey retired without explanation at the 1847 general election and is not known to have sought a seat elsewhere.12Dorset County Chronicle, 1 July 1847. Confused by the Annual Register with the noted Irish land agent Samuel Murray Hussey (1825-1900), he was inaccurately stated to have married Julia Agnes Hickson, a daughter of John Hickson, in 1853.13Annual Register of World Events (1895), pt. 2, 155. He in fact remained a bachelor, living with his widowed mother at Littleham, near Exmouth, until her death in 1871.141871 census; National Probate Calendar (1871). His own death occurred 23 years later, by when he was residing at ‘Highcliffe’, Lympstone, Devon. By his will, valued for probate at £10,821, 13 Apr. 1894, his estates were entailed on his younger brother John Hussey (1816-96) and his male successors.15National Probate Calendar (1894); London Gazette, 4 May 1894; Hussey mss DD/HSY. A collection of the family’s papers is held by Somerset Heritage Centre.