CUNLIFFE OFFLEY, Foster (1782-1832), of Madeley Manor, Staffs. and Lower Grosvenor Street, Mdx.

Cunliffe, as he was first known, was heir to Denbighshire estates rich in mineral deposits and the baronetcy conferred in 1769 on his great-uncle Ellis Cunliffe, then Member for Liverpool. On leaving Cambridge, he was bought a commission in the Grenadier Guards, which he sold shortly before he married Lord Crewe’s only daughter Emma, on whom Madeley Manor, the Staffordshire estate of the Offley family, was settled. They enlarged this inheritance by purchasing William Yonge’s estate of Weston.1 Cheshire and Chester Archives, Crewe mss DCR49/1b. Cunliffe’s close connection with the Grenvillite Williams Wynns (his sister Mary married Charles Williams Wynn*) thwarted his political ambitions in Denbighshire, but he regularly accompanied his father-in-law, whose Foxite Whiggism he shared, to Cheshire meetings and Whig Club dinners.2 The Times, 13 Oct. 1821, 14 Oct. 1822, 14 Oct. 1823. He was appointed executor of Crewe’s will, on which limited probate was granted, 5 Dec. 1829, and he and his wife, whom it confirmed in possession of Madeley and various tithes and advowsons, took the additional surname of Offley as directed.3 PROB 11/1763/688. The independent party in Chester had been engaged in litigation with the corporation over alleged misuse of Offley’s charity since 1827, and Cunliffe Offley was nominated by them in absentia without his consent at the December 1830 by-election, caused by the sitting Whig Robert Grosvenor’s appointment as comptroller of the household, and defeated by 246-154.4 The Times, 14, 15 Dec. 1830; Derby mss 920 Der (13) 1/161/27; J. Hemmingway, Chester, ii. 430. He signed the requisition for the Cheshire reform meeting in March 1831, and when Grosvenor again sought re-election that month he declared that he would not stand against a fellow reformer.5 Chester Chron. 11 Mar.; Chester Courant, 15 Mar. 1831. However, in speeches at the county (17 Mar.) and Chester (8 Apr.) reform meetings, he confirmed his readiness to oppose Chester’s second Member, the anti-reformer Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, by whose retirement he came in unopposed with Grosvenor at the general election in May. He promised to support the Grey ministry’s reform scheme, retrenchment and the abolition of slavery and of the East India Company’s trading monopoly.6 Chester Courant, 22 Mar., 5, 12 Apr.; Chester Chron. 29 Apr.; The Times, 5 May 1831; Hemmingway, ii. 431-2.

Cunliffe Offley acquired a reputation as a busy constituency Member, who corresponded closely with his local party.7 Chester Courant, 27 Mar. 1832. He voted for the second reading of the reintroduced reform bill, 6 July, against adjournment, 12 July 1831, and steadily for its details. He divided for the bill’s passage, 21 Sept., and the following day addressed the Chester meeting that petitioned the Lords in its favour and carried a resolution approving his conduct.8 Ibid. 20, 27 Sept.; The Times, 26 Sept. 1831. Making his maiden speech, before dividing for Lord Ebrington’s confidence motion, 10 Oct., he endorsed the Chester reformers’ resolutions of support for Lord Grey and the bill, cautioned ministers against resigning following its Lords’ defeat and asserted that ‘the prosperity of the country had been attained, not in consequence, but in defiance’ of the current unjust system.9 The Times, 11 Oct.; Chester Courant, 11, 18 Oct. 1831. He divided for the second reading of the revised reform bill, 17 Dec. 1831, and for its provisions for voter registration, 8 Feb., Helston, 23 Feb., and Tower Hamlets, 28 Feb. 1832. Maintaining that ‘anti-reform’ posed a greater threat of revolution than reform, he countered the bill’s critics, 20 Mar., and voted for its third reading, 22 Mar.10 The Times, 21 Mar. 1832. He divided with government on the Russian-Dutch loan, 26 Jan., and relations with Portugal, 9 Feb. He kept a close watch on the progress of the 1832 Dee Bridge bill, whose minutiae caused considerable concern in Chester.11 Chester Courant, 27 Mar. 1832. His sudden death at Madeley in April, after suffering a heart attack, prompted a flurry of speculation concerning his demise.12 Ibid. 24 Apr.; The Times, 26 Apr.; Chester Chron. 27 Apr. 1832; Raikes Jnl. i. 24, where it is erroneously stated that Cunliffe Offley died of cholera. He was childless, and by his will, proved in London under £2,000, 24 May, he left everything to his wife (d. 1850). Debts of £2,135 remained outstanding on his estate when her will was proved, 19 June 1850.13 PROB 8/225; Crewe mss 49/3-4. His executorship of his mother’s will passed to his younger brother Robert Henry Cunliffe (d. 1859), who had been knighted for military services in 1829 and succeeded their father to the Cunliffe baronetcy, 15 June 1834.14 Wellington mss WP1/1042/48; Flints. RO, Acton Hall mss D/AH/35-37. Cunliffe Offley’s nephew, Sir Robert Alfred Cunliffe, 5th bt., represented the Flint district (1872-4) and the Denbigh district (1880-5) as a Liberal.