HARTOPP, Edward Bouchier (1809-1884), of Little Dalby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire

A Conservative, described by Disraeli in 1846 as ‘a very great squire and a very agreeable man’, Hartopp had an undistinguished parliamentary career, but paid diligent attention to local agriculture.1W.F. Monypenny and G.E. Buckle, Life of Disraeli (1914), iii. 7. The Hartopps had possessed land in Little Dalby since the reign of Elizabeth I, and their Hall, ‘a large and handsome mansion’, was built during the same period.2Burke’s landed gentry (1852), i. 543; W. White, History, gazetteer and dictionary of Leicestershire and Rutland (1863 edn.), 349. Hartopp, who succeeded his father at a young age, served as Leicestershire’s high sheriff in 1832. In 1835, he launched a claim to the dormant barony of Vaux of Harrowden. After some difficulty in establishing the legality of the barony, the House of Lords referred the petitions of Hartopp and his rival to the king in 1837, who decided that the latter had the superior claim.3Both claimants were descended from the sisters of the last baron, who died in 1663; the case rested on which sister was the elder. The successful claimant, George Charles Mostyn, became 6th baron Vaux of Harrowden. Reports of cases heard and decided in the House of Lords (1841), v. 527-628; The Times, 1 Mar. 1837.

On the retirement of a long-serving incumbent at the 1859 general election, Hartopp was elected in second place for North Leicestershire, behind another Conservative, but ahead of an independent Conservative. Although he is not known to have spoken in debate, Hartopp honoured his promise to defend ‘Protestant institutions’ by opposing the abolition of church rates and of Oxford University tests.4Derby Mercury, 4 May 1859. He also cast votes against the ballot and the county and borough franchise bills of 1864. Hartopp, who had never been a regular attender of local Conservative meetings, frequently addressed farmers’ clubs and agricultural associations following his election. A critic of Liberal foreign policy, in 1859 Hartopp told one meeting that it was ‘perfectly possible that this country may be invaded’ by Napoleon III, and later expressed regret that Britain had stood aside whilst Denmark was ‘dismembered’ by Prussia.5Daily News, 24 Sept. 1859; Birmingham Daily Post, 8 Sept. 1864. He told his constituents that it would not be ‘right and prudent’ to completely repeal the malt tax and that any campaign was likely to be ‘unsuccessful’.6He cited the cotton famine and international turmoil as reasons why it would be unwise to abolish the duty: Leicester Chronicle, 30 Jan. 1864, 6 Aug. 1864; Leeds Mercury, 23 Jan. 1865. In 1864 Hartopp joined with other local MPs to sponsor a measure to facilitate the construction of bridges in rural areas, but the bill was withdrawn due to a lack of support, 11 May 1864.7The county bridges bill, proposed by Hartopp, William Unwin Heygate, Conservative MP for Leicester, and Thomas William Evans, Liberal MP for South Derbyshire, would have given magistrates the permissive power to erect bridges. Criticism that the measure would increase local taxation and give magistrates too much power forced its abandonment at the second reading: Hansard, 11 May 1864, vol. 175, cc. 351-52; PP 1864 (77), i. 543-46.

Hartopp was again elected in second place at the 1865 general election, but complained bitterly that he had been ‘represented as a Papist’ by the losing candidate and ultra-Protestant Charles Hay Frewen, a former Conservative MP for East Sussex.8Leicester Chronicle, 22 July 1865. In response to the cattle plague outbreak of 1866, he recommended the vaccination of livestock, and at the inaugural meeting of the Leicestershire Chamber of Agriculture, 7 Jan. 1867, reiterated his belief that a repeal of malt tax was impracticable.9Leicester Chronicle, 3 Feb. 1866, 19 Jan. 1867. In the same speech he expressed hostility to radical political change, but suggested that Parliament should not deny sensible and judicious reform to the people.10Leicester Chronicle, 19 Jan. 1867. He had opposed the Liberal government’s reform proposals of 1866, but supported a limited extension of the franchise during the debates on the 1867 representation of the people bill, though he resisted the granting of extra seats to the most populous towns, 17 June 1867.

Hartopp retired at the 1868 general election, when his former colleague Lord John Manners told electors that they could not have had ‘a more painstaking, reliable, trustworthy, and able representative’ than the outgoing member.11Leicester Chronicle, 21 Nov. 1868. Predeceased by his three sons, including Edward (1845-84), one of the founders of the sport of polo, on his death in 1884, he was succeeded by Honoria (b. 1866), the only surviving child of his eldest son.12F. Boase, Modern English Biography, supplement (1912), ii. 597; Burke’s landed gentry (1906), 790-1.