CAVENDISH, George Henry (1810-1880), of Ashford Hall, Ashford in the Water, Derbyshire; Latimers, Chesham, Buckinghamshire

Born into a famous Whig dynasty, Cavendish was a long serving, if not always very active county member, who gave ‘steady and consistent’ support to the Liberal administrations of the period.1The Times, 25 Sept. 1880. The second son of William Cavendish (1783-1812), who had been an undistinguished parliamentarian before his premature death, the young Cavendish was a close companion of his cousin, the 6th duke of Devonshire, whom he accompanied on tours around Italy, France, and England in the early 1830s.2HP Commons, 1790-1820, iii. 420; J. Lees-Milne, The bachelor duke: a life of William Spencer Cavendish, 6th duke of Devonshire, 1790-1858 (1991), 109, 114-17, 152. His grandfather, the formidable Lord George Augustus Cavendish (1754-1834) and brother, Lord Cavendish (1808-91), had both been county members for Derbyshire, and the latter represented the new constituency of North Derbyshire, where the family’s estates predominated, from 1832 until he succeeded the former as 2nd earl of Burlington, 9 May 1834.3HP Commons, 1790-1820, iii. 415-18; ibid., 1820-1832.

Standing as a ministerial supporter, Cavendish was returned unopposed in his brother’s place, 27 May 1834, when he voiced support for reform of the church and the poor laws, and apparently became the youngest member of the House.4Derby Mercury, 28 May 1834; Examiner, 1 June 1834. He had little time to make a mark before the 1835 election, when he was again returned unopposed after avowing the ‘principles of my family’.5Derby Mercury, 14 Jan. 1835. A staunch supporter of Whig attempts to reform the Irish church and corporations, he also served on the 1835 inquiry on sinecure offices.6Hansard, 19 Feb. 1835, vol. 26, c.57; ibid., 2 Apr. 1835, vol. 27, c.772; Derby Mercury, 4 Mar. 1835; The Times, 30 Mar. 1836, 6 July 1836, 2 Aug. 1836, 13 Apr. 1837; PP 1835 (507), xviii. 442. Describing himself as a ‘warm supporter’ of Lord Melbourne, he topped the poll comfortably at the 1837 election, which proved to be the only time he faced a contest in the period, being returned with another Liberal.7Derby Mercury, 19 July 1837.

In his maiden speech, 15 Feb. 1838, he expressed the Whig view of the ballot as a measure which would be ineffective, encourage hypocrisy, and prevent electors from being held publicly accountable for their actions.8Hansard, 15 Feb. 1838, vol. 40, cc. 1170-72. He also voted against Grote’s ballot motion on the same day: House of Commons Division Lists, 1837-38 session, 15 Feb. 1838. On other issues he generally followed the government’s line, endorsing the new poor law, but resisting abolition of the corn laws and slave apprenticeships.9Ibid., 15 Mar. 1838, 30 Mar. 1838, 22, 28 May 1838; ibid., 1839 session, 19 Feb. 1839, 15 Mar. 1839; ibid., 1840 session, 26 May 1840; ibid. 1841 session, 19, 22, 26 Mar. 1841.

Although he voiced support for a general reduction of tariffs and taxes on consumption at the 1841 election, when he was returned without opposition, Cavendish opposed Peel’s 1842 budget, including the reintroduction of income tax, and, with a few exceptions, generally voted against the repeal of the corn laws until 1845, after which he became a staunch free trader.10Morn. Chro., 13 July 1841; House of Commons Division Lists, 1842 session, 24 Feb. 1842, 9 Mar. 1842, 7, 13 Apr. 1842; ibid., 1843 session, 15 May 1843; ibid., 1845 session, 10 June 1845; ibid., 1846 session, 27 Mar. 1846, 15 May 1846. In 1842, however, he supported Russell’s motion to reconsider the corn laws and Villiers’s second motion for repeal, having opposed the first: ibid., 1842 session, 16 Feb. 1842, 11 July 1842. His voting behaviour on factory regulation displayed a less obvious pattern, but perhaps depended on whether his party was in or out of office, as having favoured watering down the 1839 bill, he supported a ten hour day and greater protection in 1844, but voted against both the 1847 factory bills.11Ibid., 1839 session, 1 July 1839; ibid., 1844 session, 18, 22 Mar. 1844; ibid., 1847 session, 17 Feb. 1847, 3 May 1847. He took his membership of the select committee on the game laws, which ran over the 1845 and 1846 sessions, seriously, and backed Manners Sutton’s report, which essentially endorsed the status quo, against Bright’s radical amendments, and also opposed the latter’s 1848 repeal bill.12PP 1846 (463-I), ix, pt. I, pp. 3-10, 30, 77, 101-102, 129, 387, 408; Hansard, 23 Mar. 1848, vol. 97, c.963.

After his unopposed return in 1847, Cavendish was less active, but continued to vote against radical demands such as the ballot, the equalisation of the county and borough franchises, and the repeal of the ‘knowledge taxes’.13House of Commons Division Lists, 1847-48 session, 6 July 1848; ibid., 1849 session, 24 May 1849, 5 June 1849; ibid., 1850, 7 May 1850; ibid., 1851 session, 2 Apr. 1851; ibid., 1852 session, 30 Mar. 1852. Although strongly in favour of Russell’s ecclesiastical titles bill of 1851, he argued in the chamber that it should not apply to Ireland, as ‘it was impossible to overlook the practical distinction between the national feelings of the two countries’.14House of Commons Division Lists, 1851 session, 14 Feb. 1851, 25 Mar. 1851; Hansard, 20 June 1851, vol. 117, c.1034.

Honouring the pledge he made at the 1852 election to devote himself to protecting local interests, Cavendish, along with other Derbyshire members, resisted proposals to rate mines for poor law purposes, which were unpopular with the owners of the county’s extractive industries, and served on inquiries on the issue in 1856 and 1857.15Derby Mercury, 4 July 1855; PP 1856 (346), xvi. 3; PP 1857 session 2 (241), xi. 534. He supported the removal of Jewish disabilities but resisted the abolition of church rates until 1855, when he became a supporter, but reverted to opposition after 1858.16House of Commons Division Lists, 1852-53 session, 11 Mar. 1853, 15 Apr. 1853, 26 May 1853; ibid., 1854 session, 21 June 1854; ibid., 1854-55 session, 29 Mar. 1855, 16 May 1855; ibid., 1856 session, 5 Mar. 1856; ibid., 1857-58 session, 8 June 1858; ibid., 1860, 8 Feb. 1860, 27 Apr. 1860; ibid., 1861, 27 Feb. 1861, 19 June 1861; ibid., 1862 session, 14 May 1862. He divided in favour of Roebuck’s motion which brought down Aberdeen’s government in early 1855, but thereafter loyally supported Palmerston, standing by his chief when other Liberals deserted him over Canton and the conspiracy to murder bill in 1857 and 1858.17Ibid., 1854-55, 29 Jan. 1855; ibid., 1857 session 1, 3 Mar. 1857; ibid., 1857-58 session, 9, 19 Feb. 1858.

In the 1860s, he objected to the government’s union chargeability bills, enabling some of the funds collected through the poor rates to be siphoned off to poor law unions in the areas most distressed by the cotton famine, such as Lancashire.18Hansard, 19 Feb., 2 Mar. 1863, vol. 169, cc. 542, 977. Developing an interest in turnpikes and drawing on his experience as chairman of a committee dealing with Scottish road bills, he intervened on a number of occasions to praise the system there, where landowners made a greater financial contribution.19Hansard, 8 June 1864, vol. 175, cc. 1426-27; ibid., 1 May 1867, vol. 186, c.1845; ibid., 8 May 1868, vol. 191, cc. 2017-18. He renewed his hostility to the rating of mines, successfully moving in 1867 that the bill be referred to a select committee, of which he became a member, and he spoke against another bill the following year.20Hansard, 10 Apr. 1867, vol. 186, cc. 1420-21, 1431; ibid., 6 May 1868, vol. 191, c.1869; ibid., 15 July 1868, vol. 193, c.1224; PP 1867 (321), xiii. 128. Consistently in favour of extending the franchise in this period, he voted for the minority clause in the 1867 reform bill, which gave electors only two votes in three member boroughs.21House of Commons Division Lists, 1864 session, 13 Apr. 1864, 11 May 1864; ibid., 1866 session, 27 Apr. 1866; ibid., 1867 session, 8 Aug. 1867.

Cavendish faced the rarity of a contest at the 1868 election, but was returned at the top of the poll, along with a Conservative, with whom he shared the representation until retiring in favour of his nephew, Lord Edward Cavendish, at the 1880 general election, explaining that ‘for the past two or three years I have felt myself unequal to the close attendance at the House of Commons needful to perform my duty, and to the late hours which the House pursues its deliberations’.22McCalmont’s poll book, ed. J. Vincent and M. Stenton (8th edn., 1971), 76; Derby Mercury, 17 Mar. 1880. He died less than six months later, leaving a personal estate sworn under £200,000, a local newspaper fairly noting that he ‘never took a very prominent part in national affairs, but took a keen interest in all local matters’.23Derby Mercury, 29 Sept. 1880; The Times, 1 Jan. 1881. Cavendish’s four sons, three of whom predeceased him, all pursued military or naval careers, and his successor was the second-born and unmarried James Charles (1838-1918).24Burke’s peerage (1909), i. 578; The Times, 15 July 1918. Although his sons did not take up politics, both of Cavendish’s daughters married into parliamentary families.25Alice Louisa (1837-1905) married Algernon Fulke Egerton, MP for South Lancashire 1859-68, South East Lancashire 1868-1880, Wigan Dec. 1882-85. Susan Henrietta (1846-1909) married Henry Robert Brand, MP for Hertfordshire 1868-74, Stroud 1880-85, and Mid-Gloucestershire, 1885-86, whose father, Sir Henry Brand, was speaker 1872-84, and thereafter 1st viscount Hampden: M. Stenton ed., Who’s who of British Members of Parliament (1976), i. 45, 124. On his brother’s succession as 7th duke of Devonshire in 1858, Cavendish was granted permission by royal licence to style himself as the son of a duke, and three of his nephews sat in Parliament.26Marq. of Hartington (1833-1908), MP for North Lancashire 1857-68, Radnor, Feb. 1869-80, North East Lancashire 1880-85, Rossendale 1885-1891, when he succeeded his father as 8th duke of Devonshire; Lord Frederick Cavendish (1836-82), MP for North West Riding of Yorkshire, 1865-82; Lord Edward Cavendish (1838-1891), MP for East Sussex 1865-68, North Derbyshire 1880-85, West Derbyshire 1885-91: ibid., 70; ibid., ii. 60, 160.