AMCOTTS, Sir Wharton, 1st Bt. (1740-1807), of Kettlethorpe Park, Lincs.

Amcotts’s property at East Retford enabled him to pose as representative of the independent interest in 1780, when he owed his return to a coalition with the 2nd Duke of Newcastle who controlled the other seat. Subsequently their politics diverged, Amcotts becoming a Portland Whig. He joined the Whig Club, 1 May 1787. By 1789, when a contest loomed, Amcotts had transferred his interest at Retford to his son-in-law Sir John Ingilby, to the annoyance of local Whigs who thought him to be a ministerial supporter. Ingilby, elected unopposed, proved them right.1Nottingham Univ. Lib. Newcastle mss NeC 2669.

Ingilby’s ‘pecuniary embarrassments’ led to Amcotts’s renewal of his candidature at Retford in 1795. On 15 Dec. he requested Portland, now a member of Pitt’s cabinet, to get him excused the shrievalty of Lincolnshire to this end, and added:

Should I however fail in my expectations at East Retford, at all events, I could wish to have a seat in the next Parliament in the mode and manner that Mr Vyner senior obtains his seat ... as it will give me an opportunity of testifying to your Grace [my] very sincere regard and esteem.

Portland encouraged his expectations and he obtained a baronetcy shortly before the election of 1796.2Portland mss PwF104; PwV110, Portland to Amcotts, 4 Feb. 1796. He was the tertius gaudiens, as the ducal interest was challenged by William Petrie. The duke’s party preferred him to Petrie, but he had no objection to receiving Petrie’s second votes. He made no mark in the House. On 2 Dec. 1796 he took six weeks’ sick leave, and another six on 25 Feb, 1801, during which he canvassed Retford.3Newcastle mss NeC 6042, 6046, 6048, 6054; The Times, 19 Mar. 1801. In 1802, still ‘the Duke of Portland’s friend’, he retired. The interest was later taken up by his grandson and heir William Ingilby.4Fortescue mss, Parker to Grenville, 21 Mar. 1802; Gent. Mag. (1807), ii. 984. He died 26 Sept. 1807.