NORTH, DUDLEY (formerly LONG) (afterwards LONG NORTH), (1748-1829), of Little Glemham Hall, Suff.

North continued to sit for Grimsby on the interest of his future father-in-law Charles Anderson Pelham. His income in 1789 being not above £3,000 p.a., he felt he could not afford to pay more than £2,000 for his seat at the next election. He survived a challenge to his election in 1790, though it was voided, after much procrastination, in 1793. An old member of Brooks’s and of the Whig Club since 17 Jan. 1785, he regarded himself as Fox’s intimate friend and zealous adherent. His dinner parties helped to keep the party together. He never spoke in the House because of a speech impediment, but Fox respected his views and he was celebrated for his wit. He voted assiduously with opposition in the Parliament of 1790, in which he remained a manager of Warren Hastings’s impeachment. He was listed a supporter of repeal of the Test Act in Scotland in 1791. In 1792, influenced by his friendship with the Earl of Lauderdale, he joined the Friends of the People: but he soon regretted it and on 4 June was one of the five seceding Members. If this led to hopes that he would be weaned from Fox (he was on Windham’s provisional ‘third party’ list), they were dashed. He helped promote the subscription to pay Fox’s debts in 1793. He wished to see an end of the war with France ‘and with it this d—d administration’. Wilberforce reported of him, 17 June 1795, ‘Poor Dudley North says he never attempts to unsettle any man’s faith’. He supported the abolition of the slave trade, 15 Mar. 1796. Edmund Burke had him to thank for his deathbed audience with his former friend Lord John Cavendish.Frederick North. He opposed Pitt’s second ministry throughout. His defeat at Banbury in 1806 prevented him from continuing his support of his friends in office, but he thought they showed rash over-confidence after Fox’s death.Thomas Creevey was elected at Liverpool and did not need his seat on the Petre interest at Thetford. Then Fitzwilliam surprised him with the offer of a seat for Richmond on the Dundas interest, ‘on the terms of vacating at any time for any of Lord Dundas’s family, or for any person to whom [Fitzwilliam] may wish to give the seat’. Accepting it, he was conscious of owing it to Fitzwilliam’s friendship for Yarborough. In December 1812 he inherited his brother’s Suffolk estate.22 Jan. 1830; Wentworth Woodhouse mun. F48/161." style="color:red;" class="drupal_footnote Nevertheless, he soon gave up his seat in the next Parliament on his brother-in-law’s interest. He died 21 Feb. 1829.