ENGLAND, George II (1679-1725), of Great Yarmouth and Stokesby, Norf.

In 1710 England was returned for Great Yarmouth, a seat which his uncles had represented before him, and was described as a Tory in the ‘Hanover list’. He was listed among the ‘Tory patriots’ who opposed the continuance of the war and the ‘worthy patriots’ who exposed the mismanagements of the old ministry, and was given a month’s leave of absence on 29 Mar. 1711. In April he succeeded to the fortune of his uncle Benjamin, and thus also to that of his other uncle George, to whom he was heir-at-law. He joined the Tory back-bench rebellion on 7 Dec. 1711, voting with the Whigs over the ‘No Peace without Spain’ motion. On 10 Dec. he was nominated to the drafting committee on the Great Yarmouth causeway bill. In January 1712 Lord Treasurer Oxford (Robert Harley*) wished him to be canvassed by Lord Anglesey (Hon. Arthur Annesley*) prior to the debate on the motion censuring the Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill†). England and his fellow Member for Yarmouth, Richard Ferrier, were among the merchants who provided ships for the Canada expedition. His political affiliation was unclear to a number of contemporary observers. His re-election in 1713 was announced at first by one newspaper as a Whig gain, a report that was later reversed. In the Worsley list he was classed as a Tory who had sometimes voted with the Whigs during the 1713 Parliament and might do so again in the ensuing one. Another comparative analysis of the two Parliaments listed him as a ‘whimsical Whig’, but he was described as a Tory in a third list and indeed polled for the Tory candidates in the county election in 1715. In the remainder of his parliamentary career he voted consistently against the government. He died on 12 June 1725.3 Camb. Univ. Lib. Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss, Ld. Townshend to Robert Walpole II*, 10 Oct. 1705; Palmer, ii. 226–7; D. Turner, Sepulchral Reminiscences, 113–14; G. Holmes, Pol. in the Age of Anne, 282; Cal. Treas. Bks. xxvi. 255.