GUISE, Sir Berkeley William (1775-1834), of Highnam Court, Glos.

Guise came from an old Gloucestershire family and held estates in the county that reputedly yielded £7,000 a year. He had entered politics as a reformer, but tempered his radicalism in order to secure a seat for Gloucestershire in 1811, and thus broke the domination of the Whig earls of Berkeley and the Tory dukes of Beaufort by championing the cause of the county freeholders.1HP Commons, 1790-1820, iv. 118; HP Commons, 1820-32, ii. 387; v. 451-2. He sat as ‘a genuine Whig’ of ‘independent principles’ for two decades, supporting Catholic relief and the reform bill, while remaining protective of the county’s agricultural interest.2HP Commons, 1820-32, ii. 387; v. 452-3. To that end, he supported the exclusion of borough freeholders from voting in the counties. After the Reform Act divided Gloucestershire into two divisions Guise came forward for Gloucestershire East at the 1832 general election and, having coalesced with a fellow Whig to see off a Conservative challenger, was returned at the top of the poll, promising the ‘same attachment to liberal principles’.3Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 25 Aug. 1832; Morning Chronicle, 20 Aug. 1832; Morning Post, 12 Jan. 1833; HP Commons, 1820-1832, ii. 390-2; v. 452-3.

Although absent from the early divisions of the session, Guise had a reputation as ‘the poor man’s friend’, and was said to have ‘abhorred oppression’.4Gent. Mag. (1834), ii. 432. He duly supported Daniel O’Connell’s motions for the protection of the rights to jury trial and public assembly with regard to the Irish coercion bill, 13, 15, 20 Mar. 1833, and divided in favour of Thomas Attwood’s motion for a committee on distress, 21 Mar. He backed Matthias Attwood’s motion in favour of currency reform, 24 Apr., voted against the ballot, 25 Apr., and supported William Ingilby’s motion to reduce malt duty, 26 Apr. He divided for Joseph Hume’s motion for a reduction in the size of the army, 3 May, and that month chaired the Clonmel election committee.5Morning Post, 18 May 1833. The committee, which upheld the return of the repealer Dominick Ronanyne, was ‘considered one of the best committees’ struck that session: Standard, 25 May 1833; Freeman’s Journal, 20 May 1833. He was in the minority that supported the retention of the appropriation clause of the Irish Church temporalities bill, 24 June, and supported Richard Sheil’s amendment to the bill which would have reduced the incomes of Irish bishops, 8 July 1833. He advocated the immediate abolition of slavery but, despite having presented numerous petitions on the issue in 1830, was absent from the divisions on the subject in late July.6Gent. Mag. (1834), ii. 432; Dod’s Parliamentary Companion (1833), 119; HP Commons, 1820-1832, v. 452.

Guise continued to support reform in the 1834 session, voting for the repeal of malt duty, 27 Feb. 1834, and supporting Lord Althorp’s motion that church rates be replaced by a central grant raised from land tax, 21 Apr. He divided in favour of Edward Strutt’s amendment for a select committee to inquire into the pensions list, 5 May 1834, when he also presented petitions for the better observance of the Sabbath.7Morning Chronicle, 4 May 1834. Guise does not appear to have spoken in debate during this period, and was described by George Berkeley, MP for Gloucestershire West, as one of ‘the worst speakers I ever heard when sober’.8G.F. Berkeley, George Berkeley: My Life and Recollections (1866), iv. 9. He was appointed to a select committee on the reports of committees on petitions for private bills in February 1834, and was instructed to bring in (with Craven Berkeley) the Berkeley and Gloucester canal bill.9Standard, 8 Feb. 1834; Mirror of Parliament (1834), i. 568. ‘Firm and disinterested’, Guise was said to have been ‘as highly respected by his opponents as he was deservedly beloved by his supporters’.10Gent. Mag. (1834), ii. 432.

His death having been prematurely announced by The Times, 19 July 1834, Guise died four days later after a ‘severe and alarming illness’ at Rendcomb Park, near Cirencester, where he had generally resided when in Gloucestershire. He was succeeded by his brother, Major General Sir John Wright Guise (1777-1865).11The Times, 19 July 1834; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 24, 31 July 1834; Morning Post, 28 July 1834; HP Commons, 1820-1832, v. 453. Highnam Court, however, remained the family seat.