| Constituency | Dates |
|---|---|
| Aylesbury | 1741 – 47 |
| Bury St Edmunds | 1747 – 8 Dec. 1756 |
Ensign 10 Ft. 1738; capt. 14 Ft. 1739; capt. and lt.-col. 3 Ft. Gds. 1741; col. 2 tp. Horse Grenadier Gds. 1745 – d.; maj.-gen. 1755; lt.-gen. 1758; gen. 1770; customer, port of Dublin 1748 – d.
Lord Petersham, a professional soldier, was present at Fontenoy, where he was ‘slightly wounded’ and ‘most commended’.1Walpole to Mann, 11 May 1745. Returned for Aylesbury in 1741 on the interest of Sir William Stanhope, he voted with the Administration in all three divisions on the Hanoverians but with the opposition minority on 15 Dec. 1743 for George Grenville’s compromise motion in favour of a stricter alliance with the Dutch.2Owen, Pelhams, 205. In 1747 he succeeded his brother-in-law, Lord Euston, at Coventry but elected to sit for Bury St. Edmunds, where he had also been returned by the Duke of Grafton, whose daughter he had married, though
neither he nor his father, Lord Harrington, have a single foot of land to make any settlement with. Lord Harrington’s elder brother, Mr. Charles Stanhope, who is unmarried, has a good estate but will not do anything upon this occasion to oblige his nephew, whose sole subsistence is his commission.3Malmesbury Letters, i. 39-40.
Two years later Horace Walpole wrote that
Sir William Stanhope has just given a great ball to Lady Caroline Petersham, to whom he takes extremely since his daughter married herself to Mr. [Welbore] Ellis; and as the Petershams are relations, they propose to be his heirs.4Walpole to Mann, 7 June 1748.
Because of his peculiar gait Lord Petersham was nicknamed ‘Peter Shambles’ and Walpole also refers to ‘his nose and legs twisted to every point of crossness’.5Walpole to Montagu, 23 June 1750. In later life he took little part in politics and was known chiefly for his libertinism. He died 1 Apr. 1779.