William Ord, whose parliamentary career spanned half a century, was a lifelong supporter of Whig principles and measures, who, according to the earl of Carlisle, exercised his parliamentary duties with ‘undeviating consistency and unassailable integrity’.1The Times, 10 Sept. 1852. The owner of Benwall colliery and extensive property in Newcastle and Morpeth, Ord’s estates were the product of the marriages and investments of his ancestors, beginning with the Newcastle attorney John Ord (d. 1703).2HP Commons, 1820-32, vi. 579. Successfully challenging the Howards, earls of Carlisle, for the second seat at Morpeth in 1802, he retained his seat unopposed for the next thirty years and was a supporter of Catholic relief and moderate parliamentary reform. Although Ord rarely spoke in debate, he was a popular figure on the back benches, and his advice was often sought on domestic politics.3Ibid. His only son, William Henry, was returned for Newport, Isle of Wight, in 1832, but, due to failing health, retired five years later, and died in 1838.
With Morpeth reduced to a single-member seat by the Reform Act, Ord contested Northumberland South at the 1832 general election. In a bitter contest, he was criticised for his son’s alleged links with the Northern Political Union, and his support of free trade was portrayed by his Conservative opponent as an attack on the agricultural interest. Calling for the abolition of slavery, Ord garnered significant support, but to the surprise of his friends and colleagues, he finished bottom of the poll.4Newcastle Courant, 22 Dec. 1832. Standing in the Whig interest in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at the 1835 general election, Ord dedicated his election address to attacking the new Tory government, stating his ‘utter distrust of their professions’, and after a lively contest was returned at the head of the poll.5Newcastle Courant, 8 Jan. 1835.
Mirroring the partisan nature of his election campaign, Ord voted for Abercromby as speaker, 19 Feb. 1835, and divided with the opposition against the address, 26 Feb. 1835. A noted champion of religious liberties in the pre-Reform era, he divided with Lord John Russell on Irish church appropriation, 2 Apr. 1835, and continued to support Melbourne’s second administration thereafter. His son’s health failing, Ord did not campaign at the 1837 general election, but with his popularity remaining strong, he comfortably topped the poll. Maintaining an assiduous attendance, he backed Charles Villiers’ motion for the repeal of the corn laws, 15 Mar. 1838, voted for the cessation of slave apprenticeships, 20 Mar. 1838, and divided with the ministry on the poor law amendment bill, 26 Mar. 1841.
A passionate proponent of free trade, Ord used his nomination speech at the 1841 general election in Newcastle to argue that a ‘more liberal system of commerce’ was the best way to relieve the hardships in Ireland, and was returned without a contest.6Newcastle Courant, 18 June 1841. Consistently opposing Peel’s ministry, he was in the minorities for Lord John Russell’s motion not to reinstate the income tax, 13 Apr. 1842, the ballot, 29 June 1842, and, upholding his belief in civil and religious liberties, for the abolition of test oaths at Oxford and Cambridge university, 25 May 1843. In the 1844 session, he was consistent in his support for the House resolving into committee over the state of Ireland, 23 Feb. and 12 June, and divided in the minority on the railways bill, 11 July. In a rare moment of support for Peel, he entered the same lobby as the premier over the extension of the Maynooth grant, 18 Apr. 1845, and having consistently backed Villiers’ annual motion, he voted for the repeal of the corn laws, 27 Mar. 1846.
At his nomination speech at the 1847 general election, Ord, who remained a popular local figure, lamented that no great principles were at stake, attacked the disorganised state of the Conservative opposition, and once again topped the poll.7Newcastle Courant, 30 July 1847. Ord loyally supported Russell’s premiership in the lobbies, backing the removal of Jewish disabilities, 11 Feb. 1848, and the removal of paper duty, 16 Apr. 1850. But with his health deteriorating, Ord’s absences were more marked in his final years, and he retired from parliament at the dissolution in 1852. That July, his retirement was marked with a civic banquet, at which the mayor praised him as ‘one of the most constant attenders in the house’, and Lord Grey observed that ‘among the members of the house there was none whose opinion carried with it great weight and influence with his colleagues than that of Mr Ord’.8The Times, 10 Sept. 1852.
Despite such lavish praise, Ord’s silence in debate meant that following his death, his parliamentary career was remembered as ‘most honourable’ but ‘not brilliant’.9Newcastle Courant, 27 July 1855. There can be little doubt, however, that he was widely respected in the Commons, and although his service on select committees was infrequent, his vast experience meant that he sat on a number of committees addressing parliamentary procedure,10For example, he served on select committees on: the losses by fire of the Houses of Parliament, PP 1837-38 (8), xxiii. 379; standing orders, PP 1847 (631), xii. 223; private bills, PP 1847-8 (32), xvi. 225; oaths of members, PP 1847-48 (256), xvi. 49. and he chaired the important general committee on elections.11PP 1840 (102), ix. 1. He died at Whitfield in July 1855, and bequeathed his estates in trust to Rev. John Alexander Blackett, the husband of his niece Ann Jane (née Hamilton), who, as required, took the additional name of Ord.12HP Commons, 1820-32, vi. 581. His papers are located in the Northumberland record office.13Northumb. RO, Blackett-Ord (Whitfield) MSS.