EGERTON, Samuel (1711-80), of Tatton Park, nr. Knutsford, Cheshire

Egerton was returned unopposed at all his elections. In 1754 he was classed by Dupplin as a ‘Tory’, but on 1 Oct. 1759 applied to Newcastle for ecclesiastical preferment for his brother, and though the Duke refused, wrote a polite letter of compliments and thanks.Add. 32986, ff. 188, 248, 356. In Bute’s list he was classed as a ‘Tory’, but in September 1762 is in Newcastle’s list of persons to be sent to; he declared his adherence to Newcastle;Add. 33000, ff. 278-9. voted against the peace preliminaries, and against the Grenville Administration, and was listed by Newcastle, 10 May 1764, as a ‘sure friend’. Rockingham, July 1765, classed him as ‘pro’, and as ‘Whig’ in November 1766; he voted with the Opposition on the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767; yet Newcastle, 2 Mar. 1767, again classed him as ‘Tory’. Egerton voted in opposition on the Middlesex election, 8 May 1769, and appears in both Robinson’s surveys on the royal marriage bill, March 1772, as ‘contra, present’. No other vote of his is recorded, though on the contractors bill, 12 Feb. 1779, Robinson listed him as ‘pro, absent. Query, pro’. But these divisions may not have been typical of his normal voting. The Public Ledger wrote about him shortly before his death:

A very wealthy country gentleman, and a Tory in principle. He votes constantly with Government when he attends Parliament, and professes a great veneration for Lord North.

Egerton’s one reported speech was on the Chester navigation bill, 22 Apr. 1771.

He died 10 Feb. 1780.