VYSE, Richard Henry Richard Howard (1813-1872), of Stoke Place, Bucks. and Boughton Park, Northants.

Valued by the leadership as a ‘good Tory’, Vyse was parachuted into the representation of Northamptonshire South in 1846, and represented the division for over a decade under a Protectionist mantle.1R. Earle to Disraeli, 21 Oct. 1863: Benjamin Disraeli letters, 1860-1864, ed. M. G. Wiebe et al. (2009), viii. 311. He also briefly represented New Windsor for two years from 1863 as a more moderate Conservative. A silent backbencher whose tenuous connection to his constituencies dogged him throughout his career, Vyse showed signs of occasional ambition, but failed to capitalise on several opportunities to progress under Disraeli.

Vyse’s grandfather, Richard (1746-1825), and father, Richard William (1784-1853), had both enjoyed lengthy military careers and sat briefly in Parliament as nominees of the duke of Cumberland prior to 1820.2HP Commons 1790-1820, v. 458-60. Neither had played much of a role in Northamptonshire’s politics prior to Vyse’s candidature in 1846 as their primary property was in Buckinghamshire, where Vyse’s father, a noted Egyptologist, was an active Conservative throughout the thirties and forties.3‘Vyse, Richard William Howard (1784-1853)’, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com; Windsor and Eton Express, 6 June 1835, 8 Aug. 1835; Oxford Journal, 23 Feb. 1839; Northampton Mercury, 23 July 1831, 23 Feb. 1839, 21 May 1842, 23 July 1842. It was only after 1844, when the family’s Northamptonshire estate at Boughton Park was rebuilt (the estate had been bestowed on Vyse’s father by an Act of Parliament in 1795, but ‘levelled in 1820’) that they came to the attention of the local Conservative party, who in February 1846 required a Protectionist candidate to fill a vacancy created by the retirement of William Ralph Cartwright.4L. F. Salzman (ed.), A History of the County of Northampton (1937), iv. 76-81. The party had identified Vyse’s father, but he declined to stand on account of his health and instead suggested his son.5Northampton Mercury, 21 Feb. 1846. Vyse, who had been educated at Eton and joined the Royal Horse guards in 1830, rising to the rank of captain via purchase in 1842, was elected uncontested at the ensuing by-election, which proved a muted affair due to a lack of any Liberal opposition. He took a Protectionist, pro-Church stance on the hustings.6Northampton Mercury, 28 Feb. 1846.

Vyse maintained an average level of attendance during his short first parliament, and voted consistently with his Protectionist colleagues. In the only known speech of his parliamentary career, 12 May 1846, he questioned the Peel ministry’s claim that their corn importation bill would alleviate Irish distress, which he contended ‘did not exist to the extent represented by the Government’. Reflecting his family’s continued connection to Buckinghamshire’s Conservative politics, as well as Vyse’s own ambition in the party, he was appointed in June 1847 as chairman of Disraeli’s successful 1847 Buckinghamshire election committee.7Disraeli to the electors of Buckinghamshire, 22 May 1847: Benjamin Disraeli letters, 1842-1847, ed. M. G. Wiebe et al. (1989), iv. 283; Morning Post, 21 June 1847. Later that year at the Northamptonshire South election, Vyse maintained his Protectionist stance, accusing his Liberal opponent of ‘political perfidy’ for his Peel-like volte-face over the corn laws, which he contended had been ‘driven [by a] spirit of Radicalism abroad’. Warning of the further perils of free trade, he informed the electors that ‘if once the Navigation Laws were overthrown England’s sun was set’.8Northampton Mercury, 7 Aug. 1847. Vyse had been attacked by the division’s only Liberal candidate due to his lack of residence in the borough, and following rumours that his fellow Protectionist incumbent had funded his campaign. Vyse reassured electors that his campaign had been funded by his father, and that prior to 1846 he had resided in barracks ‘in service of the queen’. Following the poll, in which he beat his Liberal rival by 594 votes, a relieved Vyse triumphantly proclaimed to electors that he had ‘bowl[ed] his opponent out in one innings … with a good many wickets down’.9Northampton Mercury, 14 Aug. 1847.

Vyse attended ninety-seven divisions during the first year of the subsequent parliament (the average was seventy) but thereafter his presence in the division lobby dipped below average. He presented several petitions – including two opposing the Jewish disabilities bill, 20 & 28 Mar. 1848 – and again voted consistently with his Protectionist colleagues, including with the group of hard-liners who opposed the sugar duties bill, 7 July 1848, and against reform of the navigation laws, 24 July 1851. He was re-elected at a nominal contest in 1852, where he pledged his support to the Derby government, spoke in favour of a new fixed duty on corn, and vowed to continue to ‘protect Native Industry from unfair competition with the untaxed Foreigner’ and ‘defend our Church against the attacks of a designing Roman Catholic Priesthood’.10Northampton Mercury, 3 July 1852, 17 July 1852.

Vyse’s attendance declined steadily thereafter, but he confirmed his Protectionist credentials during the Derby administration by acting as a teller for the minority that opposed Hume’s motion for a call of the house to discuss Villiers’ motion praising free trade, 19 Nov 1852, and by voting in the die-hard protectionist minority that opposed an amended version of Villiers’ motion praising free trade, 26 Nov. 1852. He divided with the Conservative whip whilst in opposition, including in support of the anti-Maynooth motions, 23 Feb. 1853, 15 Apr. 1856 and in support of Cobden’s censure motion on Canton, 3 Mar. 1857, having been listed by Disraeli as a Conservative who could be counted on to be present for the queen’s speech in January 1856 and show ‘that the great sources of the strength of the Conservative connection are united and cordial’.11Disraeli to William Jolliffe, 12 Jan. 1856: Benjamin Disraeli letters, 1852-56, ed. M. G. Wiebe et al. (1997), vi. 468-9. That July he married Julia, the daughter of Sir William Jolliffe, Disraeli’s former chief whip.12Morning Post, 25 July 1856.

Vyse polled third at the 1857 election, when the Conservatives were heavily outspent by the Liberal Viscount Althorp. He was accused by his fellow incumbent of playing party politics to vote against Palmerston over the Chinese war.13Northampton Mercury, 4 Apr. 1857; PP 1857 (332), xxxiv. 366. Vyse refused the Conservative invitation to stand at the 1858 by-election that followed Althorp’s succession to the peerage.14Northampton Mercury, 2 Jan. 1858. Instead, he resumed his military career, being appointed silver stick-in-waiting by February 1858 and earning promotion to the rank of brevet colonel later that year, before becoming lieutenant colonel via purchase in 1859.15London Gazette, 2 Feb., 30 July, 26 Oct. 1858, 4 Oct. 1859.

In October 1863 he was identified by local Conservatives as a possible candidate for the vacancy at New Windsor, his Buckinghamshire property sitting just across the county border. Vyse came forward as ‘an admirer and supporter’ of Derby, but renounced his previous support for protection to profess that ‘Free trade has been a great benefit to [the country]’ and informed electors that he was willing to accept some concession to the labouring classes over the franchise, due to ‘their abstinence and their good behaviour’.16Bell’s Weekly Messenger, 24 Oct. 1863; Windsor and Eton Express, 31 Oct. 1863. He won a close contest by 51 votes, during which he accused the royal household of attempting to turn the ‘Castle Screw’ in favour of the Liberal candidate. Both Disraeli and Derby considered Vyse’s election an extremely positive indicator ahead of the general election, particularly, Derby wrote, ‘if the Castle influence was used against us’.17R. Earle to Disraeli, 21 Oct. 1863, Disraeli to Derby, 30 Oct 1863: Benjamin Disraeli letters, 1860-1864, ed. M. G. Wiebe et al. (2009), viii. 310-15. Vyse attended 36 of a possible 255 divisions prior to the dissolution, remaining faithful to the opposition whip, opposing the abolition of the university tests at Oxford, 16 Mar. 1864, and the borough franchise bills, 11 May 1864, 8 May 1865.

His representation of New Windsor was short-lived, however, as he came bottom of the poll in 1865, when he was interrupted on the hustings by frequent jibes of ‘Go to Northampton’, ‘It is your last dying speech’, and ‘Shut up’. He confessed that he was ‘at a loss to know if there is any great political question at issue in this election’.18Windsor and Eton Express, 15 July 1865. He retired from politics following his defeat and was appointed as sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1865 and high sheriff in 1867.19Cambridge Independent Press, 18 Nov. 1865; Manchester Courier, 4 Feb. 1867. He also hosted the occasional hunt at his Buckinghamshire property.20Evening Standard, 4 Mar. 1867. His death in 1872 attracted little coverage in the obituaries, and his will was proved under £25,000. He was entombed in the family vault at Stoke Place and succeeded by his son, Howard Henry Howard Vyse (1858-1931).21Reading Mercury, 22 June 1872; The Times, 17 Aug. 1872; England and Wales, National Probate Calendar, Index of wills and administration, 1858-1966, 3 Aug. 1872, 44. His family papers are held by the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies.