BROMLEY, Robert (1815-1850), of Stoke Hall, Nottinghamshire

Bromley, the eldest son of Sir Robert Howe Bromley, of Stoke Hall, Nottinghamshire, sat briefly as a Protectionist for the southern division of the county before his untimely death at the age of thirty-five. His great-grandfather George Smith, the son of the eminent Nottingham banker Abel Smith, had been created a baronet in 1757, and his grandfather, Sir George Smith, had assumed the name Bromley in lieu of Smith in 1778, upon becoming the heir of his mother’s cousin, Robert Bromley of Abberley, Worcestershire.1J. Burke, A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland (1834), 98. Bromley’s father, Robert, a vice-admiral in the royal navy, was an influential and well-connected figure in Nottinghamshire politics and had zealously opposed the reform bill.2J.R. Fisher, ‘The Tory revival of the 1830s: an uncontested election in South Nottinghamshire’, Midland History, 6 (1981), 99. In 1832 the duke of Newcastle described him as ‘almost the only gentleman who acts with me in this county’.3Unhappy reactionary: the diaries of the fourth duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, 1822-1850 (2003), ed. R.A. Gaunt, 94.

In March 1849 Bromley was brought forward on his father’s interest for the vacancy at Nottinghamshire South, created by the resignation of the sitting member, Lancelot Rolleston. Lord John Manners, the son of the duke of Rutland, was also reported to be standing in the Conservative interest, but the superior organisational efforts of Bromley’s supporters ensured that he came forward unopposed.4Lord Henry Bentinck to Benjamin Disraeli, 27 Mar. 1849, cited in Benjamin Disraeli letters: 1860-1864 (2009), ed. M.G. Wiebe, M.S. Miller and A.P. Robson, vii. 162. Bentinck had canvassed on behalf of Manners, and confessed to Disraeli that he had been ‘checkmated’ by Bromley’s supporters. Newcastle, though, was concerned with Bromley’s candidature, recording in his diary that ‘he is a dying man and can do no good – otherwise he might be a very fit person to represent the county’.5Unhappy reactionary, 94.

In his address Bromley declared that:

My claims are founded upon the views which I hold in favour of the Protection to all branches of British industry, and upon my determination to unflinchingly uphold the interests of the agricultural body against the attacks of ... free traders. ... To this I will add, that I am a conservative, sincerely attached to the Protestant Establishment.6Nottinghamshire Guardian, 12 Apr. 1849.

Foreshadowing his early death, Bromley was too ill to canvass, but was present at the nomination to deliver a belligerent speech which attacked the ‘weak, vacillating government, unable to cope with existing difficulties’. He reiterated his support for ‘a return to protection’, and called for a reduction in taxation.7Ibid., 19 Apr. 1849. He was elected unopposed.

Despite his ongoing illness, Bromley was a reasonably regular attender at Westminster, where he followed Disraeli into the division lobby on most major issues.8In the 1849 session Bromley was present for 39 out of a possible 108 divisions: Hampshire Telegraph, 20 Oct. 1849. He voted against the repeal of the navigation laws, 23 Apr. 1849, for Disraeli’s motion on agricultural distress, 21 Feb. 1850, and supported a reconsideration of the corn laws, 14 May 1850. He backed greater regulation of child labour in factories, 6 June 1850, and opposed Roebuck’s motion praising the government’s foreign policy, 28 June 1850. Echoing his belief that ‘those whose professions are strongest, very often fall short in action’, Bromley made no known speeches and did not sit on any select committees.9Nottinghamshire Guardian, 19 Apr. 1849.

In December 1850 Bromley, ‘in consequence of increased illness’, announced his intention to retire at the opening of Parliament, explaining in an address to his constituents that he was ‘unable ... to give my attention to those duties which are demanded of your representative’.10A full and impartial report of the proceedings connected with an election contest in South Nottinghamshire, February 1851 (1851), 3.

However, before Bromley could formally resign his seat, he died, unmarried, at Stoke Hall on 30 December 1850.11Standard, 2 Jan. 1851. His younger brother, Captain Henry Bromley of the 48^th (Northamptonshire) Regiment, who in 1848 had married the youngest daughter of Lancelot Rolleston, Bromley’s predecessor as MP for Nottinghamshire South, became the heir apparent to the baronetcy.12Gent. Mag. (1851), i. 315.