DYKES, Fretcheville Lawson Ballantine (1800-1866), of Dovenby Hall, Cockermouth, Cumberland and 1 Elm Court, Temple, London

Dykes, who resided at Dovenby Hall, three miles north-west of Cockermouth, was a member of one of the oldest landowning families in Cumberland. The family name probably derived from Hadrian’s Wall, upon the line of which is Dykesfield, where the family of Dykes, or Del Dykes, resided before the Norman Conquest.1Morning Post, 1 Dec. 1866. His father, Joseph Dykes Ballantine, high sheriff of Cumberland in 1806, married Mary Fretcheville Dykes and assumed the surname Dykes in January 1800.2London Gazette, 11 Feb. 1800.

As a leading Cumberland Whig, Dykes had played a prominent part in Cockermouth’s Reform movement, though he had rejected calls for the ballot, civil list reductions and the abolition of property tax.3HP Commons, 1820-1832, ii. 231. At the 1832 general election he was brought forward as a Reformer for Cockermouth by the Cumberland Whig hierarchy, known as the ‘Blues’. Following a hard fought campaign, in which the presence of an additional radical candidate forced him to distance himself from his earlier moderate positions, he was returned at the top of the poll.4The Times, 11 Dec. 1832. A steady attender, his votes for the ballot, 25 Apr. 1833, a fixed duty on corn, 7 Mar. 1834, and shorter parliaments, 15 May 1834, appeared to confirm his advanced credentials. Although generally loyal to Grey’s ministry, he also supported scrutiny of the pension list, 18 Feb. 1834. However, he made little impact in the Commons. His only known contribution to debate was a brief intervention to support a petition from the inhabitants of Cockermouth, which called for the repeal of taxes upon newspapers, 1 Mar. 1833. His select committee service was also limited.5Dykes only known service was on the 1833 County Galway election committee: A.E. Cockburn and W. Carpenter Rowe, Cases of controverted elections (1833), i. 462

Seeking re-election in 1835, Dykes was vehemently criticised by a number of electors who were dismayed at his parliamentary record. One elector charged him with ‘a neglect of duty, with an inattention to their interests which even his friends admitted’, while another attacked him for his votes in favour of flogging in the army and navy impressment, which were described as ‘a betrayal of trust’.6Carlisle Journal, 3 Jan. 1835. A group of electors subsequently brought forward a rival Liberal candidate, but following a bitter campaign in which Dykes declared his ‘unqualified hostility’ towards Peel’s ministry, he was re-elected in second place.7Parliamentary test book (1835), 52. He divided with the opposition majority on the speakership, 19 Feb. 1835, and for the amendment to the address, 26 Feb. 1835. He voted for Irish church appropriation, 2 Apr. 1835, and for the remaining session gave solid support in the division lobby to Melbourne’s ministry.

In December 1835 Dykes ‘startled’ the electors of Cockermouth by announcing his intention to resign the representation of the borough, citing ill health and the pressure of devoting the necessary time to public business.8Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 5 Dec. 1835. He duly took the Chiltern Hundreds, 5 Feb. 1836. A ‘reserved’ man, it is likely that parliamentary life was not to his tastes and he subsequently declined an invitation to stand again at Cockermouth in 1854. 9R.S. Ferguson, Cumberland and Westmoreland MPs from the Restoration to the Reform Bill of 1867 (1871), 351. He remained, though, a prominent local figure, and succeeded Sir James Graham as the Grand Master for the Cumberland and Westmorland lodge, and was high sheriff of Cumberland in 1842.10Ibid.

Dykes died at the family seat of Dovenby Hall in November 1866. His effects were valued at under £20,000 and he was succeeded by his eldest son, Fretcheville Brougham Ballantine Dykes.11England and Wales, National Probate Calendar, Index of wills and administration, 1861-1941, 15 Jan. 1867. The family papers are held by Cumbria Record Office.12Cumb. RO DBD 1/23-4.