COLEMORE, William II (1682-1722), of the Old Deanery House, Warwick

Little has been ascertained about the younger William Colemore. Returned for his native town in 1713, presumably with backing from the Greville interest, he was almost certainly a Tory, but the indications are that he was a very moderate one: the Worsley list describes him as a Tory who often voted with the Whigs, while in an analysis of Members of the 1713 Parliament re-elected in 1715 he appears somewhat equivocally as a ‘whimsical Whig’. In a third list he is identified simply as a Tory. Indeed, his moderate Toryism was noted by one senior Whig who observed that ‘Mr [Andrew] Archer* and Mr Colemore in your county are with us in most of the questions’. He evidently made sufficient impression on proceedings to be included on the ‘Speaker’s list’ of moderate Tories canvassed in June 1714 for places on the new commission of accounts. Although not elected he obtained a creditable total of 144 votes. He continued to represent Warwick until his death on 1 Nov. 1722, his father outliving him by eight months.2 Fitzwilliam Mus. Lib. Camb. Perceval mss A21, James Craggs I* to Anne Newsam, 22 Apr. 1714; NLS, Advocates’ mss, Wodrow pprs. letters Quarto 8, f. 138; BL, Verney mss mic. 636/55, William Capps to Ld. Fermanagh (John Verney*), [18 June 1714].