BAMPFYLDE, Sir Richard Warwick, 4th Bt. (1722-76), of Poltimore, Devon

Bampfylde voted against under George II, and under George III generally voted with the court. He appears in Fox’s list of Members favourable to the peace preliminaries. But as Member for Devon he had to oppose the cider tax: he spoke against it on 13 Mar. 1763 and ‘acquitted himself well’. ‘Dick Bampfylde is in high credit both here and at London for his active opposition to the cider bill’, wrote Philip Barton to Philip Rashleigh from Exeter on 17 Apr. 1763.Rashleigh mss. Yet he himself avowed in a later debate, on 24 Jan. 1764, that he ‘spoke not his own sentiments ... but those which the instructions and petitions of his constituents forced him to maintain’; he had ‘endeavoured to keep the peace in his county’, and praised Grenville for his ‘politeness, open candour, plain integrity, and justice’.Harris’s ‘Debates’; Jas. Grenville to Lady Chatham, 27 Jan. 1764, Chatham Corresp. ii. 282. Bampfylde is included in Newcastle’s list of those ‘supposed to have voted with us’ on 15 Feb. 1764 over general warrants, but on 18 Feb. voted with Government. His lukewarm attitude over the cider tax now caused him trouble in Devon: he feared his constituents would instruct him to oppose ‘every act of Government in general’, and that an opposition was preparing for the next general election.Bampfylde to Bedford, 21 Sept. 1764, Bedford mss 50, f. 140. But he continued to support Grenville, and on 16 Dec. 1764 wrote in reply to Grenville’s whip:Grenville mss (JM).

The zeal I have for his Majesty’s service, and for those who are at present entrusted with the management of public affairs, is not only an inducement for me to coincide with them in whatever shall be thought most beneficial for the community in general, but to testify my warmest endeavours for their permanency and success by an early attendance in Parliament.

Classed by Rockingham in July 1765 as ‘doubtful’, he voted against the repeal of the Stamp Act, 22 Feb. 1766; and in January 1767 Charles Townshend classed him as a follower of Grenville. He voted against Administration on the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767.

His name appears in no extant division list after 1767, and during this time he is only known to have made two speeches in the House—on 16 Jan. 1770, when presenting an address from his constituents, and on 17 Feb. 1774 on a motion for a committee on the linen industry.Cavendish’s ‘Debates’, Egerton 252, f. 14. In Robinson’s first, undated, survey on the royal marriage bill, Bampfylde is classed ‘doubtful’; in the second, 8 Mar. 1772, ‘pro’; and in that of the Parliament of 1774 ‘hopeful’.

He died 15 July 1776.