Constituency Dates
Peterborough 1780 – 6 Feb. 1786
Family and Education
b. 24 July 1744 in St. Kitts, 1st s. of Constantine Phipps of St. Kitts, a member of council, by Mary, da. of James Farrel of Montserrat.1H. R. Phipps, Notes on Phipps and Phip Families, ii. 33-36; Caribbeana, i. 68-69. educ. St. Mary Hall, Oxf. 1761; M. Temple 1763. m. 7 Feb. 1771, Mary Coghlan, 1da., who; Sir Patrick Blake 1789. suc. fa. 1769.
Address
Main residence: Peterborough, Northants.
biography text

Phipps stood unsuccessfully for Peterborough in 1774, but was returned unopposed in 1780. The English Chronicle wrote about him in 1781:

Is a gentleman of small fortune in the island of St. Kitt’s, but being a known and tried enemy to the present Administration, he was, on that account, highly acceptable to the electors of Peterborough ... Mr. Phipps is not said to be a man of shining talents ... He breeds and fights cocks to admiration, and is as much distinguished after the matches are concluded, for drowning the fatigues of the war in a social bowl as any man, though that is a bold word, who sits within the honoured environs of St. Stephen’s Chapel.

Phipps voted for Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783, and for Pitt’s parliamentary reform proposals, 7 May; he voted against Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov., and supported Pitt. He was re-elected unopposed in 1784, but his health gave way soon afterwards,2Lionel Damer to Fitzwilliam, 27 July 1784, Fitzwilliam mss, Northants RO. and he does not seem to have attended the House. No speeches by him are known. He died 6 Feb. 1786.

Author
I.R.C.
Volume
Commons 1754-1790
Notes
  • 1. H. R. Phipps, Notes on Phipps and Phip Families, ii. 33-36; Caribbeana, i. 68-69.
  • 2. Lionel Damer to Fitzwilliam, 27 July 1784, Fitzwilliam mss, Northants RO.