WHITSHED, James (b. c.1716), of Hampton Court, Mdx.

Whitshed, connected through his father-in-law, Lord Bathurst, with Leicester House, shortly before the general election of 1747 was included by Dr. Ayscough in a list of ‘persons to be brought into Parliament by his Royal Highness, who are not able to bring in themselves’, with the note ‘not fixed’ against his name;4HMC Fortescue, i. 108. and he does not seem to have stood at that time. In 1754 he was returned unopposed for St. Ives on the Praed interest.5Add. 35604, f. 197. In Dupplin’s list he was classed as a Government supporter, among the ‘Prince’s family and their connexions’. In 1761 he was returned for Cirencester, after a contest, on the Bathurst interest. He appears in Henry Fox’s list of Members favourable to the peace preliminaries, December 1762; was classed by Jenkinson in the autumn of 1763 as a Government supporter, but voted with the Opposition on general warrants (6, 15, 18 Feb. 1764), and was counted by Newcastle, 10 May 1764, as a ‘sure friend’. He supported the Rockingham and each succeeding Administration until the fall of North. Whitshed voted against Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783. There is no record of any speech by him during his 29 years in the House. In May 1783 he vacated his seat to make room for Lord Bathurst’s son, Lord Apsley, who had come of age.