SIBTHORP, Gervaise Tottenham Waldo (1815-1861), of Canwick Hall, nr. Lincoln, Lincs.

The Sibthorp family had strong political connections with Lincoln. John Sibthorp (1669-1718) was the first member of the family to be returned as its MP, and thereafter four generations represented the city in Parliament, with Sibthorp’s father, Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp (1783-1855) serving almost continuously from 1826 until his death. This electoral success was based on strong local loyalty to the family built up over a considerable period of time, though Charles Sibthorp’s fierce independence and diligence in the Commons certainly bolstered his position. His son, Gervaise, however, was to be the last member of the family who represented the city.1S. Roberts & M. Acton, The parliamentary career of Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp, 1826-1855 (2010), 117-18.

Sibthorp was educated at Harrow and Oxford, where he excelled at cricket, playing for his school and university, and subsequently for the Old Harrovians.2Ibid., 21-2, 93-101; www.cricketarchive.com. He joined the militia in 1838, rising to the rank of major, a title by which he was generally known in the House. He had long been lined up as his father’s parliamentary successor – indeed canvassing for him began the day after the latter’s death.3Morning Post, 19 Dec. 1855; Lincoln, Rutland & StamfordMercury, 21 Dec. 1855. Though Sibthorp declared his views to be ‘essentially Conservative’, he was undoubtedly somewhat embarrassed by his father’s reputation as an anti-reformer, and determined to break with his intransigent positions. His election address of December 1855 made clear that he favoured cautious, well-thought out reform, including a modification of church rates and some extension of the franchise. The expression of such views would have been alien to his father, but at least he adopted the family line on secret voting, which he believed was a continental idea that encouraged deceit.4Lincoln poll book (1856). Whereas the elder Sibthorp had lived at Canwick Hall for only short periods during the summer and over Christmas, Gervaise spent much time there, and mixed with the local elite. One obituary recorded that

‘somewhat reserved in manner, arising from ill-health and a delicate organisation, he never, amongst a certain class of the constituency, acquired the popularity of his late father; but within his own more immediate circle of friends and neighbours his high intelligence, affability, and graceful manners were as highly appreciated as his generous thoughtfulness and kindness of heart rendered him esteemed and beloved’.5Morning Chronicle, 16 Oct. 1861.

Sibthorp was returned unopposed for Lincoln in January 1856 after his Liberal opponent withdrew. On the hustings, where he ‘appeared to be suffering from severe illness’, he noted the ‘ruin, misery and expenditure’ entailed by the Crimean war, to which he hoped for a speedy conclusion, but declared himself opposed to any ‘patched-up, trumpery peace’, and attacked ‘the “peace-at-any-price party”, whose whole soul and ideas appeared to be centered upon pounds, shillings, and pence’. He professed himself to be ‘a Conservative, but no party man’, reaffirmed his desire to see the church rates question settled, and voiced his support for administrative reform and for adjustments to income tax.6Morning Post, 17 Jan. 1856; Morning Chronicle, 17 Jan. 1856. He wrote a letter in support of the objects of a Lincoln meeting against the income tax the following January, describing this impost not only as ‘most unjust in principle’ but also ‘most inquisitorial, tyrannical, and oppressive in the process of execution’, and declared himself prepared to vote for its abolition rather than see it retained in its current form.7Manchester Times, 17 Jan. 1857. Sibthorp comfortably secured re-election at the 1857 and 1859 general elections, topping the poll on both occasions.

Whilst his father had had much to say in the Commons, Gervaise contributed very little, limiting himself to occasional questions, mostly on military and imperial matters. Typical of these interventions was his enquiry as to whether soldiers of illegitimate birth who had fought in the Crimea were being denied war medals sent by the French government, 8 Apr. 1856. On domestic matters, he confined himself to the relatively trivial, such as whether the government stored gunpowder in Waltham Abbey, 25 June 1857.

Initially at least Sibthorp was a moderately frequent attender, present for 77 out of 198 divisions in the 1856 session.8J.P. Gassiot, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck: with a full analysis of the divisions in the House of Commons during the last session of Parliament (1857), 11. However, he was not active in the committee-rooms, and only appears to have served on the committee on the Portland harbour bill.9PP 1857 sess. 2 (0.76), xxxiv. 13. He divided against Locke King’s motion to equalise the county and borough franchises, 19 Feb. 1857. Absent due to ill-health from a reform meeting at Lincoln in January 1859, when he lamented ‘the imperfect state of my hearing’, he told his constituents that the time for discussion was ‘very premature’, given that a measure was not yet before the House.10Morning Chronicle, 13 Jan. 1859; Liverpool Mercury, 14 Jan. 1859. However, in keeping with the moderate reformism espoused in his 1855 election address, he divided for the Derby ministry’s reform bill, 31 Mar. 1859. He generally voted against proposals on the abolition of church rates, although he divided for the second reading of Sir John Trelawny’s measure, 17 Feb. 1858, perhaps preferring this to the alternative prospect of a government bill on the question. He followed his father in consistently voting against the ballot and routinely backed Richard Spooner’s anti-Maynooth motions. It was suggested that he supported the Conservatives ‘whenever he could consistently do so, but ever maintaining a strictly independent position in the House’, but in practice he followed his party’s leaders into the lobby on most key divisions, opposing Palmerston over Cobden’s motion of censure on the Canton affair, 3 Mar. 1857, and on the conspiracy to murder bill, 19 Feb. 1858.11Morning Chronicle, 16 Oct. 1861.

The last Sibthorp to represent Lincoln in Parliament died in harness in October 1861. The Times (and numerous other papers) erroneously recorded that upon leaving the house where he was staying near London, Sibthorp had been in conversation with Alexander Beresford-Hope and suddenly ‘fell into his arms and died’, a report which the latter refuted.12The Times, 16, 18 Oct. 1861. In fact, Sibthorp had never fully recovered after being ‘seized with paralysis’ on a fishing trip in Derbyshire some months previously, and was taken ill with ‘compression of the brain’ while visiting St. Leonards-on-Sea, dying within two hours.13The Times, 17 Oct. 1861. His younger brother Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Sibthorp was mentioned as a successor for his Lincoln seat, but in the event no Conservative candidate came forward.14Daily News, 17 Oct. 1861. Sibthorp’s extensive estates in Lincolnshire, together with lesser holdings in Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire passed to his eldest son, Coningsby Charles Sibthorp (1846-1932), then a scholar at Eton.15Ibid.; Leeds Mercury, 16 Oct. 1861. In 1883 the Sibthorp estates amounted to 7,700 acres in Lincolnshire and Oxfordshire: J. Batemen, The great landowners of Britain and Ireland (4th edn., 1883), 407. He left estate valued at under £30,000.16England & Wales, National Probate Calendar, Index of Wills and Administrations, 1861-1941, 29 Nov. 1861.