HOSKYNS, Sir Hungerford, 4th Bt. (c.1677-1767), of Harewood, Herefs.

The younger son of a Herefordshire baronet, M.P. for the county 1685-7, Hoskyns entered the army during the war of the Spanish succession, but resigned on succeeding to the title and estates. Returned without opposition for the county at a by-election in 1717, he supported the Administration, voting for the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts and for the peerage bill. He was defeated in 1722, when his Tory opponents made great play with his vote against the Occasional Conformity Act. It was also alleged that he, though the representative of a cider county, had moved for a duty on cider, a story which the Duke of Chandos, whose niece he had married, described as ‘so impossible and ridiculous it requires no answer.’ He also antagonized Lord Oxford by canvassing his tenants and even his butler without permission. After his defeat he applied for financial assistance to Chandos, who replied:

I am truly sorry for your ill-success in the county election, I can hardly call it a disappointment, it having been no other than what by the accounts I have for some time received I did expect to be ... It is not in my power to assist you in what you desire, my own affairs are really so embarrassed by my losses in the South Sea and African companies that notwithstanding the great retrenchments I have made in my way of living I find I must come to a much greater still.

Nor was Chandos in favour of an election petition:

As to the ground you say there is of petitioning the Parliament all I can say to it is, that if you can clearly disprove his qualification it will certainly vacate his election but as it is an invidious charge, you must be sure you can make it good before you bring it to a trial, also the attempting it will do you still more prejudice I doubt in the county.1Chandos to Wodehouse, 14 Apr. 1722, to Hoskyns, 8 Mar., 3 Apr., 3 May 1722, Chandos letter bks.

Hoskyns never stood again, dying at the age of 90, 21 Dec. 1767.