WESTERN, Sir Thomas Burch, 1st bt. (1795-1873), of Felix Hall, Kelvedon, Essex and Tattingstone Place, Ipswich, Suffolk

Western, the only Liberal to sit for Essex North in its 36 year history, was a prominent figure in the county’s political and agricultural life, though his parliamentary career was perfunctory. He was a descendant of Thomas Western (c.1624-1707), of Felix Hall and Rivenhall Manor, Essex, who had been one of England’s most important ironmongers.1R. R. Brown, ‘Western, Thomas (bap. 1624, d. 1707)’, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com. Born in Bermuda, Western was the eldest son of his namesake father, a distinguished rear-admiral in the royal navy. At the age of nineteen, he succeeded his father to the family estate at Tattingstone, near Ipswich.2Essex Standard, 17 Aug. 1864. In 1824 he was appointed a gentleman of the privy chamber.3N. Carlisle, An inquiry into the place and quality of the gentlemen of his majesty’s most honourable privy chamber (1829), 253. His first political experience came at the 1826 general election, when he stood in for his cousin Charles Callis Western, Whig Member for Essex since 1812, who had been too ill to canvass.4HP Commons, 1820-1832, ii. 371. On Charles Western’s death in November 1844, he inherited his late cousin’s Felix and Rivenhall estates, whereupon he moved from Tattingstone to the former, though he remained chairman of the Ipswich bench of magistrates.5Essex Standard, 17 Aug. 1864. Thereafter he played a leading role in the Essex Liberal party, chairing election committees and nominating parliamentary candidates for the northern division.6Ibid., 6 Aug. 1847, 16 July 1852. He was high sheriff of the county in 1850 and later became president of the important Essex Agricultural Association. In recognition of his public service, he was created a baronet in August 1864.7Ibid., 17 Aug. 1864.

At the 1865 general election Western accepted a requisition from local electors to stand as a Liberal for Essex North, where his late cousin had been defeated in 1832. A Liberal had never been returned for the division, created by the 1832 Reform Act, but following an extensive revision of the register in 1864, Liberal hopes were high.8K. Neale, ‘Essex gentry and the general election of 1865’, in K. Neale (ed.), Essex ‘full of profitable thinges’ (1996), 393-424. Crucially, Western targeted the votes of the Dissenters who resided in the urban areas of the constituency.9Ibid., 408. Although a dedicated Churchman, he made church rate abolition the centrepiece of his campaign, asserting that it was a grave injustice that Nonconformists were obliged to pay them.10Essex Standard, 19 July 1865. He also called for a reduction in the malt tax, an imposition much detested by the local rural interest.11Ibid. The contest was a bitter and personal one, and his advanced age (he was sixty-nine years old) was seized upon by his Conservative opponent, William Beresford, who quipped that ‘if he goes at his age to the House of Commons, he will come back to you in a session or two enfeebled in strength, bent in vigour, wishing himself safely at home’.12Ibid. Western kept a relatively low profile during the campaign, relying largely on the canvassing efforts of his son, Thomas Sutton Western, who had been returned for Maldon in 1857, and the Rev. Sir John Page Wood, his sitting tenant at Rivenhall Place.13Neale, ‘Essex gentry’, 420. Nevertheless, following a hard fought contest, he was narrowly elected in second place. At the declaration he delivered a notably partisan speech, lavishing Gladstone with effusive praise.14Essex Standard, 19 July 1865.

Despite his age, Western attended the Commons regularly, but his contribution to debate was limited to one very brief intervention concerning the election town for the proposed new division of Essex East, 12 July 1867. He is not known to have sat on any select committees. As expected, he voted for church rate abolition, 7 Mar. 1866, and for Sir Fitzroy Kelly’s motion to consider a reduction in malt duty, 17 Apr. 1866. He supported the Liberal government’s reform bill, 27 Apr. 1866, and opposed the Adullamite amendment to base the franchise on rateable value rather than a £7 rental value, 13 June 1866. He followed Gladstone into the division lobby on the major clauses of the Derby ministry’s representation of the people bill, apart from the enfranchisement of women, for which he was absent, 20 May 1867, and cumulative voting, which he supported, 5 July 1867. He voted for Gladstone’s resolutions on the Irish church, 3 Apr. 1868.

With the county’s seats having been redistributed by the 1867 Reform Act, Western offered for the newly-created division of Essex East at the 1868 general election. His unwavering support for the disestablishment of the Irish church, however, proved deeply unpopular, and he was resoundingly defeated in third place.15Ibid., 25 Nov. 1868. He was somewhat compensated by being appointed lord lieutenant of Essex in May 1869, following the resignation of Lord Dacre.16London Gazette, 11 May 1869. His supporters had previously lobbied Henry Brand, the Liberal chief whip, to appoint Western to the lieutenancy in July 1865, following the death of the previous incumbent.17Neale, ‘Essex gentry’, 421.

Western died at Felix Hall after a protracted illness in May 1873.18Morning Post, 2 June 1873. He was buried at Tattingstone Church, Suffolk, and left effects valued at under £14,000.19Ipswich Journal, 7 June 1873; National Probate Calendar, 12 July 1873. He was succeeded in the baronetcy and estates by his only son, Thomas Sutton Western (1821-77), Liberal Member for Maldon, 1857-65.