PONSONBY, John George Brabazon (1809-1880), of 3 Cavendish Square, London

Born into the aristocratic network of ‘Grand Whiggery’, Ponsonby was first elected to Parliament in 1831, in time to lend support to Grey’s reform ministry, of which his father, Lord Duncannon, was a leading member. He vacated his seat of Bletchingly in order to accommodate Thomas Hyde Villiers, the secretary to the board of control, a few months later. That October he was reseated for Higham Ferrers, which was disenfranchised by the Reform Act in 1832, when he failed to find another berth.1HP, Commons 1820-1832, vi. 834. Standing at Derby in 1835 in the Devonshire interest, Ponsonby suffered a mental breakdown, induced by the stress of working for Palmerston as a foreign office précis writer attempting to copy and clear all despatches before the change of government in late 1834. His mother’s death in March 1834 had also placed a strain upon him, and his father’s anxiety about the cost of the election may have proved an additional burden.2Ibid.; D. Howell-Thomas, Duncannon: Reformer and Reconciler, 1781-1847 (1992), 189-90. Fleeing his lodgings in Derby, Ponsonby was later found in a barn claiming to be a debtor who had escaped from gaol. His father’s brother-in-law Lord Melbourne described Ponsonby’s appearance as ‘wild and haggard’ and he was taken to Melbourne Hall to recuperate, rendering any participation in the election campaign out of the question. In his absence - the reasons for which were not revealed to the public - Ponsonby was returned for Derby, where Duncannon had arranged for Sir John Hobhouse, the Whig MP for Nottingham, to deputize.3HP, Commons 1820-1832, vi. 834; C. Hogarth, ‘The 1835 elections in Derbyshire’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal (1974), xciv. 52-54; Howell-Thomas, Duncannon, 187-90.

Ponsonby’s parliamentary attendance was disrupted by a series of personal misfortunes, including the death of his first wife, the daughter of Lord Durham, from consumption four months into their marriage, 18 Dec. 1835, and an eye injury sustained whilst engaged in field sports, Nov. 1840, which he later described as a ‘most severe accident’.4Derby Mercury, 11 Nov. 1840, 27 Jan. 1841; Howell-Thomas, Duncannon, 190-92. A lax attender, when present he usually supported Melbourne’s second administration in the division lobbies, though in a rare spoken intervention he unsuccessfully proposed an amendment to the 1835 municipal corporations bill to preserve the rights of freemen, except the right to vote in parliamentary elections.5Hansard, 16 July 1835, vol. 29, c.673; Derby Mercury, 22 July 1835. He consistently voted for the ballot and repeal of the corn laws and divided in favour of the municipal corporations (Ireland) bill in 1840.6Derby Mercury, 15 Mar. 1837; House of Commons Division Lists, 1837-8 session, 15 Feb. 1838; ibid., 1839 session, no. 100, 18 June 1839, no. 9, 19 Feb. 1839; ibid., 1840 session, no. 33, 14. Feb. 1840; no. 66, 9 Mar. 1840; The Times, 18 Feb. 1842, 9 Apr. 1842, 17 May 1843, 15 June 1843, 16 May 1846. Ponsonby was not free to act on his own political inclinations, however, as he was increasingly held accountable through local public meetings, and even asked electors to ‘communicate with him whenever his votes in Parliament might, in their opinion, appear inconsistent with his professions’.7Derby Mercury, 28 Mar., 25 Mar. 1835, 5 Apr. 1837. Constituency pressure, particularly from local textile manufacturers, may account for Ponsonby’s opposition to factory regulation, which many of his Whig relations supported.8House of Commons Division Lists, 1844 session, no. 61, 13 May 1844; The Times, 25 May 1844; P. Mandler, Aristocratic Government in the Age of Reform: Whigs and Liberals, 1830–1852 (1990), 220.

After briefly serving as a précis writer to Lord Durham during his time as ambassador to Russia, Ponsonby wrote to his father that he desired ‘some place’ as ‘I have no occupation & cannot make any – and without some occupation or interest time does hang very heavy’.9John Ponsonby to Viscount Duncannon, 6 Sept. 1837, quoted in Howell-Thomas, Duncannon, 257. Earlier in 1837 he had busied himself by serving on the select committee on the Poor Law Amendment Act, appointed 27 Feb., but after three months of hearings, the investigation was abruptly halted by the dissolution occasioned by the king’s death. The final report tentatively concluded that the Act had helped to increase wages and employment and Ponsonby was in the majority on the committee which voted down the critical motions of John Walter [I], including one to allow outdoor relief.10PP 1837 (481), xvii. pt. i. 2-4, 9-10. Ponsonby was not a member of the successor committee formed after the election, but expressed his opposition to poor law repeal in a Commons vote, 20 Feb. 1838.11House of Commons Division Lists, 1839 Session, 20 Feb. 1838.

Ponsonby took a more active role in his membership of the 1840 investigation into the health of towns, which called for national measures to rectify the social problems caused by the ‘neglect or inability’ of local authorities. Suggested remedies included legislation to regulate sewerage and building, a sanitary inspectorate, and a board of health, the last coming to fruition after the Whigs’ return to office in 1846 as the general board of health established by the 1848 Public Health Act.12PP 1840 (384), xi. 278, 285, 291-96, 312, 314, 343, 349; Mandler, Aristocratic government, 245, 258-64; 11 & 12 Vict. c.63.

He had defended the beleaguered ministry’s record to his constituents early in 1841 and at that year’s general election was re-elected for Derby, where he sat until succeeding his father as fifth earl of Bessborough.13Derby Mercury, 27 Jan. 1841. Despite remarrying in 1849, Ponsonby died without issue at Bessborough House in 1880, the title passing successively to his brothers Frederick George (1815-95) and Walter William (1821-1906).