PENLEAZE, John Story (?1786-1855), of Beech Cottage, Southampton, Hants and Bossington, nr. Stockbridge, Hants

‘A martyr to the rapacity and meanness of the Southampton Reformers’, Penleaze was ‘utterly ruined’ by his three election contests for the notoriously venal borough of Southampton, where he had first been returned as a reformer in 1831.1Hampshire Advertiser, 14 Mar. 1840, 16 July 1842. Financial embarrassment forced him to abandon the Commons in 1835 and by 1839 he was languishing in a debtors’ gaol.2London Gazette, 15 Mar. 1839. His imprisonment was not noticed in HP Commons, 1820-32, vi. 723-5. A consular posting by the Melbourne ministry saved his skin the following year, however, initiating an unspectacular diplomatic career in ‘honourable exile’ that was widely seen as an act of charity.3Hampshire Advertiser, 14 Mar. 1840.

In 1819 Penleaze had inherited a substantial fortune from his surgeon father, whose origins are obscure. Ten years later he hemorrhaged a reputed £4,500 contesting a by-election at Southampton, where he had settled in the mid-1820s and become a senior member of the corporation. Defeated after a six-day poll, he spurned the 1830 election but in 1831 agreed to come forward as a supporter of the Grey ministry’s reform bill and was elected in second place.4HP Commons, 1820-32, vi. 723-5.

At the 1832 general election he offered again, citing his loyal backing for the reform bill, regular attendance at Westminster and assistance in the construction of a local pier.5Hampshire Advertiser, 15 Dec. 1832. The appearance of lewd squibs depicting an opponent’s wife, however, sullied his campaign, while his attempts to curb expenditure in a contest during which ‘such open bribery, perhaps, was never known’, derailed many of his own supporters.6Morning Chronicle, 14 Dec. 1832; Morning Post, 17 Dec. 1832. Defeated in third place, he was seated on petition in April 1833 after receiving assurances that a local subscription would be raised to meet his costs, which in the event fell short of what was needed.7Morning Post, 3 Apr. 1833; A. Temple Patterson, A History of Southampton (1966), i. 172-4. Later that year he sold his Bossington estate near Stockbridge.8The Times, 8 Aug. 1833.

A fairly regular attender during his last stint in the Commons, Penleaze gave silent support in the lobbies to most radical causes, including the ballot, shorter parliaments, tax reductions, and lowering of the corn import duties. He was in the majority against Attwood’s motion for currency reform, 24 Apr. 1833, brought up constituency petitions against slavery, 18 Apr. 1833, and for the relief of Dissenters, 3 Mar. 1834, and divided steadily for opening universities to Nonconformists. Appointed to the Itchen bridge and roads committee, 21 Feb. 1834, Penleaze assumed the lead in guiding a bill to construct a floating bridge across the Itchen at Southampton Water into law, 25 July 1834, earning him plaudits from the local press for his ‘constant’ attendance.9CJ lxxxix. 128, 447; Hampshire Advertiser, 7 June 1834. He also served as a steward of the local races.10Hampshire Advertiser, 26 July 1834.

Writing to the Whig lord chancellor Lord Brougham later that year for a living for one Rev. Ernest Hawkins, his son’s tutor, Penleaze described himself as a ‘staunch supporter of the present government’, adding that he ‘moderately advocated the diffusion of knowledge’ and believed in the ‘necessity of going along with, rather than being driven into, measures which the times require’.11UCL, Brougham mss 19,419, Penleaze to Brougham, 4 Nov. 1834. No evidence that Penleaze himself belonged to the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge has been found, and although he spoke at a Southampton Mechanic’s Institute meeting that September, he took exception to being dubbed ‘another parliamentary lecturer’ by the Tory Morning Herald, retorting that he was not a ‘habitual lecturer’ and had ‘no inclination’ to become so.12Hampshire Advertiser, 27 Sept. 1834. A ‘sprained ankle’ prevented him attending a local Liberal election meeting prompted by the unexpected dissolution, and shortly thereafter he announced his retirement, citing his age and poor health.13Morning Chronicle, 8 Dec. 1834; Examiner, 21 Dec. 1834; Temple Patterson, Southampton, i. 174.

In 1836 Penleaze was taken to court by Brooks’s for non-payment of his club subscription and postage costs, and ordered to pay £12 16s.14Hampshire Telegraph, 26 Aug. 1836. By now he was residing with his son John, a clergyman, near Exeter, where his creditors caught up with him, landing him ‘in the gaol’ in March 1839.15Hampshire RO, Q27/3/250. His goods were ordered into administration and he was declared ‘insolvent’, 31 Aug. 1839.16London Gazette, 13, 15 Mar., 3 Sept. 1839. His consular posting, 27 Mar. 1840, was attributed to the influence of John Easthope, proprietor of the Liberal Morning Chronicle, who had unsuccessfully contested Southampton in 1835.17Hampshire Advertiser, 14 Mar. 1830. After serving briefly at Amsterdam, during which time his remaining property was sold at auction, Penleaze transferred to Barcelona, where he and his family had a ‘narrow escape’ from artillery fire during the insurrection against the regent in 1843.18Hampshire Telegraph, 12 Oct. 1840; Hampshire Advertiser, 16 Sept. 1843.

Penleaze returned to England to seek medical advice in December 1854, and after being advised to stay with a relative, died intestate at his son’s house in Hereford in April 1855. The Southampton lodge of Freemason’s, for whom he had acted as a provincial grand master in the early 1830s, paid him fulsome tribute.19Hampshire Advertiser, 21 Apr. 1855; Hampshire Independent, 21 Apr. 1855. No will or grant of administration has been found.