STURT, Henry Charles (1795-1866), of 16 Portman Square, London and Crichel House, Wimborne Minster, Dorset.

One of the ‘free trade converts’ forced to ‘struggle with both their consciences and constituents’ over repeal of the corn laws in 1846, Sturt’s decision to resign his seat for an agricultural constituency rather than ‘rat’ on his pledges ‘caused quite a sensation’, in what was otherwise a fairly lacklustre parliamentary career.1N. Gash, Sir Robert Peel (1972), 571; Morning Post, 9 Feb. 1846. A nephew of the 6^th earl of Shaftesbury, Sturt had sat fleetingly on the family interest as a ‘stop gap’ in the unreformed Commons, following in the footsteps of both his father Charles, a spendthrift Foxite Whig, and grandfather Humphry (1725-86), MP for Dorset for almost 30 years.2HP Commons, 1820-32, vii. 348-9; HP Commons, 1754-90, iii. 507-8. Sturt’s political affiliations, like those of his grandfather, were something of an enigma before 1831: he had been spoken of as a possible reformer for the county by-election of that year, but in the event backed his anti-reform cousin Lord Ashley.3Lady Holland to Son, 116; Dorset Pollbook (1831), 92.

At the 1835 general election Sturt offered for Dorset as a replacement for the disgraced Tory William Bankes, professing his determination to give Peel’s ministry a ‘fair trial’.4Standard, 26 Dec. 1834; Parliamentary Testbook (1835), 153. Returned unopposed alongside Ashley and another first cousin, the Whig William Ponsonby, as part of an electoral compact between the county’s leading families, he had no qualms about then touring ‘the whole of the county ... personally to thank every elector on his return’.5Hampshire Advertiser, 31 Jan. 1835. In 1837 he was again re-elected without opposition.

A fairly regular but silent attender, Sturt voted with ministers on the speakership, 19 Feb., address, 26 Feb., and Irish church appropriation, 2 Apr., and was in the majority against repeal of the malt tax, 10 Mar. 1835. Thereafter he steadily opposed the Melbourne administration in the lobbies on most major issues, including English and Irish municipal reform and the abolition of Irish tithes, and appeared in the majorities against radical initiatives such as the ballot and the removal of property qualifications for MPs. On 28 July 1835 he voted against inquiry into the military reappointment of his infamous brother-in-law Lord Brudenell (later Lord Cardigan), who had been removed from his cavalry command for cruelty to his officers. He came to his aid again in February 1841, when he put up £5,000 for bail following Cardigan’s indictment for attempted murder and his trial in the Lords.6Hansard, 2 Feb. 1841, vol. 56, cc. 178-80. He also helped to finance another cousin, the Australian explorer Captain Charles Sturt (1795-1869), in his quest to find an inland sea in that continent.7M. Langley, Sturt of the Murray (1969), 228, 237.

A consistent supporter of the corn laws throughout the 1830s, Sturt was also a founder member of the New Agricultural Society established at the Freemason’s Tavern in London, 9 May 1838, and a vice-president of Dorset’s Blandford Agricultural Society, where he occasionally spoke.8Morning Chronicle, 10 May 1838; Morning Post, 28 Dec. 1839. He silently backed his cousin Ashley’s motion against child factory labour, 20 July 1838, and was often praised for his acts of local philanthropy, including the erection of ‘model cottages’ for his tenants and the provision of three rectories for resident clergyman at Mintern, Sutton Waldron and Long Critchell.9Morning Post, 23 July 1838; Hampshire Advertiser, 19 Aug. 1837; L. Ruegg, ‘The Farming of Dorsetshire’, Journal of the Bath and West of England Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, viii (1860), 221-222. Appointed to the Walsall election committee in March 1838, he managed a solitary question during its protracted inquiry, 25 Mar. 1841.10Examiner, 18 Mar. 1838; Morning Post, 26 Mar. 1841. Present at various banquets held to honour Peel, he of course helped vote ministers out of office, 4 June 1841.11See, for example, Examiner, 20 May 1838. Rumours that he would retire at the ensuing general election were swiftly contradicted by Sturt, who promised to ‘take the decision of the constituency by polling’ if necessary, but in the event was again spared a contest.12Morning Post, 10, 11 June, 7 July 1841.

Sturt later claimed to have ‘been elected by an agricultural constituency on a full understanding that he would support the corn laws’.13Standard, 6 Feb.; Daily News, 7 Feb. 1846. This did not prevent him voting for their modification with a sliding scale, 9 Mar., 7 Apr. 1842, and he also supported Peel’s introduction of an income tax, 13 Apr., and property tax, 25 Apr., 31 May 1842. He was conspicuous by his absence from Ashley’s divisions on factory reform in 1844 and also missed the vote on the Maynooth grant, 3 Apr. 1845. Speaking at a Blandford Agricultural Society meeting, 20 Dec. 1845, he promised ‘to stand by the present protection to agriculture’, and the next month was duly listed as a supporter of the corn laws in the press.14Standard, 7 Feb. 1846; Morning Post, 26 Jan. 1846. On 31 Jan. 1846, however, he applied for the Chiltern Hundreds, explaining that he had ‘now changed his opinion upon that subject’ and had come to accept that ‘a law of this nature is no longer tenable’.15Standard, 6 Feb., Daily News, 7 Feb. 1846. Some elements of the press praised his ‘honourable motives’, contrasting his noble actions with those of Peel and his cabinet, but the Tory press were incensed. Dismissing any possibility that he had really altered his opinions, they accused him of lacking the ‘courage’ to vote according to ‘his own convictions against the government’ and of leaving ‘his constituents in the lurch.’ He should ‘sell the Dorsetshire estate’, and ‘after a three years’ absence on the continent ... settle either in Argyleshire or in Galway’, they warned.16Standard, 7 Feb. 1846. One doggerel backing loyal Protectionists remarked:

The Somerset squires may at Acland throw dirt,

And Dorsetshire farmers may grumble at Sturt,

But I never rat and I ought to be prized,

For a vote, though it’s silent, should ne’er be despised.17Morning Chronicle, 9 Feb. 1846.

It has been suggested that Sturt intended to offer again in the ensuing by-election, but he issued no known address and like Ashley, who had also resigned, his chances were considered ‘hopeless’ against the Protectionist candidates who came forward.18R. Stewart, The Foundation of the Conservative Party (1978), 212. Writing to Peel, who tried to persuade him not to resign, Sturt offered a mild but ‘telling’ reproach. ‘My only criticism on your present measure’, he observed, ‘shall be very gentle – whether it might not have been managed without stranding others and myself’.19Add. 40583, ff. 280, 282, Sturt to Peel with reply, 29, 30 Jan. 1846; Gash, Peel, 613. He evidently remained on good terms with Peel, however, inviting him to stay at Crichel in 1849.20Add. 40602, f. 253, Sturt to Peel, 25 Nov. 1849. Rumours that he would offer for the county as a supporter of free trade in 1852 came to nothing.21Economist (1852), x. 315.

Sturt generally took a backseat in the administration of his county, preferring to pursue his interests in science, archaeology and agriculture.22Gent. Mag. (1866), i. 912. A keen advocate of the benefits of the fixed steam engine, which he used to supply water and saw timber at his ‘home farm’, his tenants were ‘one of the first’ to buy fixed engines for ‘threshing and winnowing’. His programme of replacing ‘old mud-walled and thatched cottages’ on his estates with new houses for labourers and ‘aged people’ won many plaudits.23L. Ruegg, ‘The Farming of Dorsetshire’, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, xv. (1854), 402; idem., Journal of Bath and West England Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, viii. (1860), 221-22.

Sturt died in April 1866, leaving ample provision for family members in his will, proved under £140,000, 2 July 1866. Crichel, a landmark Georgian mansion with interiors by James Wyatt, passed to his eldest son Henry Gerard Sturt (1825-1904), a noted member of the Jockey Club and Conservative MP for Dorchester from 1847-56 and for Dorset from 1856-76, when he was created Baron Alington. Sturt’s political papers, covering the period 1810-65, remain in family hands at Crichel.24NRA 13547.