Peerage details
cr. 19 Oct. 1714 Bar. COBHAM; cr. 23 May 1718 Visct. COBHAM
Sitting
First sat 1 June 1715; last sat 3 May 1749
MP Details
MP Buckingham, 17 Dec. 1697, 1698, 1701 (Jan.), 1701 (Nov.); Bucks. 8 Nov. 1704, 1705; Buckingham 1708, 1710.
Family and Education
b. 24 Oct. 1675, 1st s. of Sir Richard Temple, 3rd bt. educ. Christ’s, Camb. 1694. m. ?1715, Anne (d.1760), da. of Edmund Halsey, s.p. suc. fa. as 4th bt. 10 May 1697. d. 13 or 14 Sept. 1749; will 8 June 1748, pr. 13 Oct. 1749.1 TNA, PROB 11/773.
Offices Held

Envoy extraordinary to Vienna Oct. 1714 – May 1715; constable, Windsor Castle 1716 – 23; gov. of Jersey 1723 – d.; PC 6 July 1716.

High steward, Buckingham 1697 – d.; ld. lt. Bucks. 1728 – 38.

Col. of ft. 1702 – 10, 4 Hussars 1710 – 13, 1 R. Drags. 1715 – 21, 1 Drag. Gds. 1721 – 33, 1 tp. horse Grenadier Gds. 1742–?5, 5 Drag. Gds. 1744 – 45, 10 R. Hussars 1745 – d.; brig.-gen. 1706, maj.-gen. 1709, lt.-gen. 1710, gen. 1735, field marshal 1742; comptroller clothing the army 1708, army accts. 1722.

Likenesses

oil on canvas by Sir G. Kneller, c.1710-13, NPG 3198.

biography text

The son and successor to a Tory baronet but himself a Whig and career soldier, Temple had lost his Buckingham seat in the Commons in 1713 and failed to regain it on petition on 3 Mar. 1714. Following the accession of George I he was created a peer as Baron Cobham, commemorating his descent through his maternal grandmother from William Brooke, 10th Lord Cobham (d.1597), though he was not that family’s heir. He did not have an opportunity to sit before the 1715 Parliament, so his career as a peer will be discussed fully in the next phase of this work.

Notes
  • 1. TNA, PROB 11/773.