HONYWOOD, William Philip (1790-1831), of Sibton, Kent and Marks Hall, Essex.

A few months after coming into his inheritance, Honywood was returned for Kent, for which his father had been Member 1806-12. A Whig agent had thought it a pity he had not offered in 1812, as he would have provided them with ‘a sure vote at every call’, unlike his ailing father.1Grey mss, Goodwin to Grey, 29 Aug. 1812. The most embarrassing opposition came from his cousin Sir John Courtenay Honywood, 5th Bt., of Evington, who had more Kentish property, but he agreed to withdraw and though there was a contest it was not a difficult one. Honywood professed himself a moderate reformer and a friend to religious toleration, but would not pledge himself on Catholic relief.2Kentish Chron. 2, 12 June 1818; The Late Elections (1818), 158, He signed the requisition to Tierney to lead the Whigs in the House, following his father’s line by supporting them. He had, with his father, been named steward of the London reform meeting in June 1811 and had joined Brooks’s Club 3 June 1816.

Illness prevented Honywood from attending3Grey mss, Tierney to Grey, 3 Feb. 1819. until 22 Feb. 1819, but he appeared frequently in the minority except in April, when he was a defaulter, and in July. He favoured a review of the penal code, 2 Mar. 1819, and opposed public lotteries, 4 May and 9 June. He voted for burgh reform, 6 May (his only vote on the subject). He voted for inquiry into the abuse of charitable foundations, 23 June. He opposed coercive legislation until 14 Dec. 1819, speaking twice against the seditious meetings prevention bill, 7 and 13 Dec. In his first speech he thought it an insult to Kent, and in his second ‘an innovation on the constitution and subversive of the liberties of the country’. Honywood died 22 Apr. 1831.