LONG, Charles (1679-1723), of Hurts Hall, Saxmundham, Suff.

Succeeding as an infant to the largest property in Jamaica, Charles Long bought an estate in Suffolk, not far from Dunwich, for which he was returned in 1715, voting with the Government. In 1718 he petitioned unsuccessfully for a 31 years crown lease of Dunwich, pleading that he had been ‘at great expense to preserve H.M.’s interest in the borough’.1Cal. Treas. Bks. xxxii. 417; see DUNWICH. In 1720 he and a number of other persons obtained a patent granting them all gold and silver mines in Jamaica for 31 years. Long and his associates put up £150,000, a large part of which he, as treasurer, invested in South Sea stock at the height of the boom, with disastrous results. As a result, his grandson writes, he became ‘involved in a labyrinth of intricate accounts and lawsuits, besides which the powers of his mind entirely sank’.2R. M. Howard, Longs of Jamaica, i. 67-71. Nevertheless he stood again in 1722 for Dunwich, declaring, it was said locally, ‘that he would spend £5,000 rather than lose it’.3A. Bence to Ld. Strafford, 5 Dec. 1721, Add. 22248, f. 131. Defeated, he died 8 May 1723.