WINGFIELD (AFTERWARDS WINGFIELD BAKER), Richard Baker (?1801-1880), of 2 Lowndes Square, London and Orsett Hall, Romford, Essex

Wingfield, who had only a perfunctory parliamentary career in this period, was a member of a politically distinguished family, with his father, grandfather and two of his brothers-in-law all having sat in the Commons. His father, the renowned barrister William Wingfield, whom Thomas Creevey once described as ‘the most successful humbug simpleton I have known in all my life’, had represented Bodmin, 1806-7, and served for a quarter of a century as master of chancery, 1824-49.1HP Commons, 1790-1820, v. 636; Creevey’s life and times: a further selection from the correspondence of Thomas Creevey, ed. J. Gore (1934), 258. In 1827 he had inherited the Orsett estate of an uncle, Richard Baker, and following the death of Baker’s widow, taken his surname by royal licence, 29 Dec. 1849.2D. W. Coller, The people’s history of Essex (1861), 510. Wingfield’s maternal grandfather, Henry Digby, had sat for Ludgershall, 1755-61, and Wells, 1761-65, before being created first Baron Digby, of Sherborne, Dorset, in 1765, then Earl Digby in 1790.3HP Commons, 1754-1790, i. 324. Wingfield’s eldest brother, George, later inherited the Sherborne estates and took the additional surname Digby.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Wingfield entered Christ Church College, Oxford, before embarking on a legal career. Called to the bar in 1827, he was appointed chief secretary to his brother-in-law Sir Charles Christopher Pepys, master of the rolls (and MP for Malton, 1831-36), in 1834, and continued to serve Pepys in that capacity when he was appointed lord chancellor two years later.4Annual register (1835), 199. In 1837 he married Margaret Maria Hanmer, sister of John Hanmer, of Bettisfield, Flintshire, MP for Shrewsbury, 1832-37, Kingston upon Hull, 1841-47, and Flint Boroughs, 1847-72.5Ibid., (1838), 149.

At the 1857 general election Wingfield was brought forward by local Liberals for Essex South. His address underlined his zealous support for the established church, though he also called for some alteration in the church rates.6Essex Standard, 25 Mar. 1857. Speaking to a meeting of Liberal electors, he confirmed that he would have voted with Palmerston against Cobden’s censure of the government over the controversial bombing of Canton. One elector present at the meeting moved an amendment against his candidature, on the grounds that he did not support the immediate abolition of church rates, but it came to nothing.7Ibid., 27 Mar. 1852. Introduced at the nomination as ‘a genuine Liberal – not merely a man who calls himself a Whig’, Wingfield lamented the personal nature of the contest, claiming that his Conservative opponent ‘appears to be ready to say things against me which no Christian man would say against another’. Religious references permeated most of his public addresses; he brought his nomination speech to a close by declaring that ‘nothing shall move me from my fulcrum, my basis – my bible’.8Ibid., 1 Apr. 1857. After a fiercely fought campaign, he was elected in second place by a narrow margin of 17 votes.

Wingfield failed to make any discernable impact in his first Parliament. He rarely spoke in debate and was absent for most of the 1858 session, owing to his father’s precarious health.9Ibid., 3 Mar. 1858. On his father’s death in March 1858 he inherited the Orsett estate and assumed the additional surname of Baker.10Coller, The people’s history of Essex, 510. His record in the division lobby reflected his support for the extension of religious liberties. In 1857 he voted for the government’s oaths bill, 25 June, and in 1859 he opposed Spencer Walpole’s church rate bill, 9 Mar., explaining later that he could not support a measure which legalised exemption from the rates on the grounds of ‘conscientious objections’.11Essex Standard, 4 May 1859. He did, however, back Sir John Trelawny’s bill to abolish the rates, 15 Mar. 1859. His piety was evident when he discussed the potential dangers of the divorce and matrimonial causes bill, arguing that clergymen should be allowed to refuse to marry a person who had been divorced for adultery, 4 Aug. 1857. He also made brief interventions in debates on metropolitan matters. He noted that the southern part of Essex should be exempt from the operation of the metropolitan police district bill, as his home county had no police magistrates, 12 June 1857, and was one of a group of MPs who spoke out against the London sewage scheme proposed by the metropolitan board of works, on the grounds of its narrow focus, 22 July 1858. He voted against the Derby ministry’s reform bill. 31 Mar. 1859. He is not known to have sat on any select committees.

The 1859 general election contest underlined the difficulty Wingfield-Baker had in squaring his unwavering devotion to the established church with his support for the abolition of church rates. Repeatedly attacked by his Conservative opponents for his vote in favour of Trelawny’s bill, he insisted that his wish to stop the ‘destruction of peace and harmony that arose upon their collection’ was motivated entirely by ‘Christian principles’.12Ibid., 4 May 1859. He also, to the disappointment of some Liberal electors, argued that the ballot was unnecessary. Instead voters should act ‘as Christians – practically, honestly and fairly’.13Ibid., 4 May 1859. He was heavily defeated in third place by his two Conservative opponents.14Ibid., 6 May 1859.

Wingfield-Baker offered again at the 1865 general election, when he made the repeal of the malt tax the centrepiece of his campaign, but was comfortably defeated.15Daily News, 19 July 1865. Following the rearrangement of the county’s seats in 1868, he was returned unopposed for Essex South at that year’s general election, and subsequently voted for the disestablishment of the Irish church, but lost his seat in 1874, the fifth and last time he offered for the county division. Thereafter he continued to play a prominent role in his county’s parliamentary elections, chairing the central committee to return two Liberals at the 1880 general election. He was also an active chairman of the Essex quarter sessions and in 1878 chaired a local committee to consider the provisions of the Highways and Locomotives (Amendment) Act.16Essex Standard, 3 Apr. 1880.

Wingfield-Baker died after being thrown from his horse while riding at his elder brother’s Sherborne estates in March 1880.17Ibid. An inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.18Pall Mall Gazette, 3 Apr. 1880. He left effects valued at under £35,000 and was succeeded by his only son, Digby Hanmer Wingfield (1838-84), a captain in the royal horse guards.19National Probate Calendar, 7 July 1880.