DUNDAS, Hon. Lawrence (1766-1839), of Aske, nr. Richmond, Yorks.

Dundas stood again for York in 1820 on the interest of his uncle Lord Fitzwilliam and the corporation, despite the fact that his father’s failing health raised the possibility that he would be removed from the contest before it was over. In the event, his father rallied and he was returned at the head of the poll, with another Whig, after pledging to resist any ‘unnecessary infringements of the liberties of the people’, but declaring that he saw no reason to amend the ‘vigorous and excellent’ constitution. At a subsequent dinner, he looked forward to the new reign and remarked that it must be ‘gratifying’ to George IV to find that ‘the principles which had placed his family on the throne were now as triumphant as they were when his ancestors called on the people to defend their claims, in opposition to those of the pretending family’. Yorks. Gazette, 11 Mar.; The Times, 11, 14, 17 Mar. 1820. He continued to act with the Whig opposition to Lord Liverpool’s ministry during his brief final stint in the Commons, but is not known to have spoken in debate. It is unclear whether he or Charles Dundas was the ‘C.L. Dundas’ who voted in the minority on the civil list, 3 May 1820. He certainly divided against the appointment of an additional Scottish baron of exchequer, 15 May, and inquiry into military expenditure, 16 May. He was granted three weeks’ leave, 9 June 1820, and was removed from the Commons five days later when he succeeded to his father’s peerage.

He remained a stalwart Whig and was rewarded with promotion in the peerage in the coronation honours of 1838. He died in February 1839 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Thomas Dundas*.