WELBY, William Earle (1829-1898), of 8 Upper Belgrave Street, London and Denton Hall, nr. Grantham, Lincolnshire

Welby, who, in his own words, gave ‘a steady and consistent support to the leaders of the great Conservative party’, was the eldest son of Sir Glynne Earle Welby, of Denton Hall, MP for Grantham 1830-57.1Stamford Mercury, 10 Apr. 1868. Part of an ancient Lincolnshire family with a notable political pedigree, both his grandfather and great-grandfather had also sat for Grantham, from 1802-6 and 1807-20 respectively, as had his maternal grandfather, Sir Montague Cholmely, 1^st bt., 1820-26.2HP Commons, 1790-1820, v. 502-3; HP Commons, 1820-1832, vii. 678-9. Like his ancestors, Welby is not known to have spoken in the Commons and made little impact as an MP. However, as ‘the house of Denton was always the first to assist in any undertaking having a charitable tendency’, Welby remained ‘exceedingly popular’ in his native county.3Lincolnshire Chronicle, 3 Apr. 1857; The Times, 28 Nov. 1898.

At the 1857 general election Welby came in for the vacancy created by his father’s retirement. Echoing his father’s political principles, his address stated that he was ‘hereditarily and deeply attached to that union of church and state’ and while he supported ‘ample religious toleration’, he would oppose any measure ‘which would endanger either the safety, or the Christian and protestant character of our institutions’.4Lincolnshire Chronicle, 20 Mar. 1857. On these grounds, he was against the opening of places of amusement on the Sabbath and the abolition of church rates.5Stamford Mercury, 3 Apr. 1857. He was equivocal, though, on the subject of franchise reform, insisting that he would give ‘anxious consideration’ to any proposals, but arguing that the country did not require an extension of the franchise as it would ‘do more harm than good’.6Ibid. Refusing to enter a coalition with the other Conservative candidate, he insisted that he was ‘pledged to no party’, and was comfortably elected at the top of the poll.7Lincolnshire Chronicle, 3 Apr. 1857.

He was in the minority for the Derby ministry’s reform bill, 31 Mar. 1859, and at the 1859 general election, when he was returned unopposed, he explained that while ‘the bill was open to grave objections’, he had backed it because ‘the good preponderated over the evil’.8Stamford Mercury, 6 May 1859. His opposition to franchise extension appeared to have softened since 1857 and he now supported ‘any measure which seemed to him calculated to admit those to the suffrage whose education and intelligence qualify them to exercise the privilege wisely’.9Ibid. However, he voted against Locke King’s county franchise bill, 13 Mar. 1861, and Baines’ borough franchise bills, 10 Apr. 1861, 11 May 1864, 8 May 1865, arguing that the proposals would ‘overwhelm the middle class’.10Lincolnshire Chronicle, 14 July 1865. He also remained hostile to the ballot, as ‘the door would be opened wide for the readmission of all that bribery and corruption which they had tried so long to get rid of’.11Stamford Mercury, 6 May 1859. Reflecting his unwavering defence of the established church, he voted against church rate abolition, 14 May 1862, and the tests abolition (Oxford) bill, 16 Mar. 1864. He backed Disraeli’s censure of the government’s policy on the Danish war, 8 July 1864.

At the 1865 general election Welby praised Gladstone for his ‘financial abilities’, but warned that ‘he entertained some opinions which ... [were] very dangerous’. He was again elected without a contest. He opposed the Russell ministry’s reform bill, 27 Apr. 1866 and 18 June 1866, and followed Disraeli into the division lobby on the major clauses of the Derby ministry’s representation of the people bill, believing that ‘change must be extensive enough to form a durable settlement’.12Ibid., 10 Apr. 1868. In his only known service in this period, he sat on the 1867 select committee on the turnpike trusts bill.13PP 1867 (352), xii. 710. He voted against Gladstone’s resolution on the Irish church, 3 Apr. 1868.

In April 1868 Welby resigned his seat in order to offer for the vacancy at Lincolnshire South created by Sir John Trollope’s elevation to the peerage as Baron Kesteven. In his address he pledged to give ‘calm and dispassionate consideration to any scheme that may be proposed’ to remedy the condition of Ireland, but attacked Gladstone’s resolutions, which had been brought forward ‘as a party move’ and ‘an election cry’. For Welby, the real issue was not Irish disestablishment, which would lead to ‘papal supremacy’ in Ireland, but the need to effectively deal with the question of peasant proprietorship of the land, which, if left unaddressed, would lead to further violence.14Stamford Mercury, 10 Apr. 1868; Lincolnshire Chronicle, 2 May 1868. Although he was returned unopposed, his candidature was not to everyone’s taste, with one anonymous elector asking:

What are Mr Welby’s antecedents? He has been eleven years Member for Grantham, but he has been so quiet, so silent, so isolated, that no one knew [him] beyond the borough.15Stamford Mercury, 17 Apr. 1868.

In 1875 Welby succeeded his father in the baronetcy, and, as his father had done in compliance with the will of his close friend and distant relative Gregory Gregory of Harlaxton, added the name of Gregory to his own in 1876.16Following Gregory Gregory’s death in 1860, Welby’s father had inherited the major portion of the contents of Harlaxton Manor. In 1877 Parliament passed the Gregory Heirlooms Act, which enabled Welby to proceed with the sale of these contents: G. Rowlands, ‘History of Harlaxton Manor: its construction, interiors and inhabitants’, in Harlaxton Manor Guide Book (1984). He continued to represent Lincolnshire South until his retirement in February 1884. Thereafter he was active in county politics, and was chairman of Kesteven (Lincolnshire) county council.

Welby died at Denton Hall, Lincolnshire, in November 1898.17The Times, 28 Nov. 1898. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his only son, Charles Glynne Earle Welby, private secretary to the secretary of state for war, 1887-92, and 1895-1900, and Conservative MP for Newark, 1900-6.