GOODRICKE, Sir Francis Lyttelton Holyoake, 1st bt., (1797-1866), of Ribston Hall, Yorkshire; Studley Castle, Warwickshire

A ‘parvenu baronet’ who possessed ‘not an acre of land’ in the county, Goodricke was an inactive Conservative MP who briefly represented Stafford before triumphing in the South Staffordshire by-election of May 1835.1Cutting, Wolverhampton Chronicle, 12 May 1835, Staffs. RO, D1798/319. A test of party strength in an important county, the result was of considerable significance, signalling an increasingly powerful Conservative electoral recovery in the English counties. Goodricke’s victory was the highpoint of his political career, and he did little of note before retiring at the 1837 general election.

His father, Francis Holyoake, owned land in Tettenhall in Staffordshire and acquired the Studley Castle estate in Warwickshire through marriage into the Lyttleton family.2Gent. Mag. (1866), i. 272. The Holyoake family were also partners in a Wolverhampton bank with Sir John Wrottesley, Whig MP for Staffordshire 1823-32, South Staffordshire 1832-7.3M. Dawes, Country banks of England and Wales, 1688-1953 (2000), ii. 651-2. At the 1832 general election Francis Lyttleton Holyoake, as he was then known, offered as a ‘Conservative Whig’ for Wolverhampton but finished third.4Morning Chronicle, 18 Dec. 1832; The Times, 20 Dec. 1832. The following year Holyoake inherited the Ribston Hall estate in Yorkshire after the death of his friend Sir Harry Goodricke, whose patronymic he thereafter assumed. He was a ‘fortunate heir’ as the late baronet had ‘from no ties of relationship, but mere personal predilection as to a friend and fellow sportsman, bequeathed to him a great part of his immense property’.5T. Raikes, A portion of the journal kept by Thomas Raikes from 1831 to 1847 (1856), ii. 43. It has also been suggested that Sir Harry had gambled away the estates playing chance with his friend, a deal subsequently honoured by his widow.6J.T. Ward, ‘A nineteenth century Yorkshire estate: Ribston and the Dent family’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 41 (1963), 44. The estates were worth £14,000 per annum, but Goodricke lost little time in selling the Ribston Hall estate to the Dent family, reportedly for £280,000.7Ibid.; Wolverhampton Chronicle, qu. in Birmingham Gazette, 9 Sept. 1833; Morning Post, 8 Feb. 1840.

Goodricke mooted standing for South Staffordshire at the 1835 general election, but eventually offered as a Conservative for the venal borough of Stafford, where he topped the poll.8Staffordshire Advertiser, 29 Nov. 1834. During the campaign he described the new poor law – unpopular with local freemen – as ‘tyranny’.9Staffordshire Advertiser, 3 Jan. 1835. A silent member, Goodricke supported Manners Sutton for the speakership and voted for the address, 19, 26 Feb. 1835. His loyalty was rewarded by Peel creating him a baronet, 31 Mar. 1835. He opposed Russell’s motion on the Irish church, 2 Apr. 1835. When a vacancy arose for South Staffordshire, Goodricke resigned to stand in the Conservative interest. He was an inferior candidate to his Whig opponent in terms of parliamentary experience and his county credentials. His difficulties in public speaking were ‘a great theme for laughter … The other day he attempted to address a body of electors, but stuck fast in commencement, and could not get out a word’.10Morning Chronicle, 21 May 1835. However, William Dyott, a local Tory squire, described Goodricke as ‘a popular man; [and a] steady conservative’.11Dyott’s diary: a selection from the journal of William Dyott, ed. R.W. Jeffrey (1907), ii. 200. The baronet told electors that he was standing to liberate the county from Whig domination and advocated ‘those moderately Conservative and true Reform principles’ held by Peel’s late government.12Sir F.L.H. Goodricke, Address to the electors of South Staffordshire, 9 May 1835, Staffs. RO, D1798/319.

Despite his deficiencies, Goodricke was victorious due to the superior organisation of his party.13P. Salmon, Electoral reform at work: local politics and national parties, 1832-1841 (2002), 78, 84-5. He missed most of the important divisions in the remainder of the session, although he did support the defence of freemen’s rights, 16 July 1835. The following year he backed Chandos’s motion for agricultural relief, 27 Apr. 1836, and opposed the Whigs policy on the Irish church and tithes, but was frequently absent. He voted against Irish municipal reform and the abolition of church rates in the 1837 session. He retired at the general election that July, telling electors that he had ‘set free’ the constituency.14Staffordshire Advertiser, 8 July 1837. This was for public consumption, as privately local Conservatives were unenthusiastic about re-electing Goodricke. John Smith, the chief local organiser, informed Lord Sandon of a party meeting at which ‘it was frankly stated that Sir Francis is considered a most inefficient member for such a place as South Staffordshire, and that his again offering himself, will be very injurious for the Conservatives’.15John Smith to Lord Sandon, 14 Apr. 1837, Harrowby MSS, qu. in G.B. Kent, ‘The beginnings of party political organisation in Staffordshire 1832-41’, North Staffordshire Journal of Field Studies, 1 (1961), 86-100 (at 90-1). Goodricke canvassed Bewdley, but withdrew before the nomination and does not seem to have sought a return to Parliament thereafter.16Staffordshire Advertiser, 15 July 1837.

In the words of Josiah Clement Wedgwood, chronicler of Staffordshire parliamentary history and founder of the History of Parliament, Goodricke ‘squandered his fortunes and died poor’.17J.C. Wedgwood, Staffordshire parliamentary history (1934), iii. 93. The family bank, renamed as Holyoake, Goodricke and company in 1834 and Sir Francis Lyttleton Holyoake Goodricke and company in 1846, was amalgamated into the Midland Banking Company in 1863, which was later absorbed by Barclays.18Dawes, Country banks, ii. 651-2. At the time of his death in December 1865, Goodricke resided in Sherborne House, in Worcestershire. He left a personal estate of £12,000 and the baronetcy passed successively to his sons Harry and George Edward, the title becoming extinct on the latter’s death in 1888.19Calendar of Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration (1866), 127; Burke’s peerage and baronetage (1904), 671.