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John Hales Calcraft

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British Member of Parliament (1796–1880)
John Hales Calcraft
Member of Parliament
for Wareham
In office
28 March 1857 – 29 April 1859
Preceded byJohn Erle-Drax
Succeeded byJohn Erle-Drax
In office
12 December 1832 – 30 June 1841
Preceded byGranby Calcraft
Charles Wood
Succeeded byJohn Erle-Drax
In office
7 March 1820 – 9 June 1826Serving with John Calcraft
Preceded byJohn Calcraft
Thomas Denman
Succeeded byJohn Calcraft
Charles Baring Wall
Personal details
Born23 September 1796
Rempstone Hall, Purbeck, Dorset
Died13 March 1880(1880-03-13) (aged 83)
St George Hanover Square, London
Political partyWhig
Other political
affiliations		Conservative/Tory (before 1857)
Spouse Lady Caroline Katherine Montagu ​ ​(m. 1828)​
ChildrenSeven
Parent(s)John Calcraft
Elizabeth Hales
RelativesGranby Calcraft
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford
Eton College

John Hales Calcraft (23 September 1796 – 13 March 1880) was a British Whig, Conservative and Tory politician.

Family

Born at Rempstone Hall in Purbeck, Dorset, Calcraft was the son of John Calcraft and Elizabeth née Hales (daughter of Sir Thomas Hales, and the brother of Granby Calcraft. He married Lady Caroline Katherine Montagu, daughter of William Montagu and Lady Susan Gordon, in 1828, and they had three sons and four daughters, including: John Hales Montagu (1831–1868); Susan Charlotte (1833–1892); William Montagu (1834–1901); Henry George (1836–1896); and Georgiana Emily (died 1915). Upon his marriage, his father granted him an allowance of £1,000 a year and allowed him to reside at Rempstone.

Political career

Elected to gentleman's club Brooks's in 1817, Calcraft was brought into Parliament for the first time at his father's borough of Wareham. Sitting as a Tory alongside his father (who was a Whig), he was described by Sir James Mackintosh as a "very sensible young man" and held the seat until 1826, although he often divided with the Whigs. However, his early parliamentary career was somewhat inactive with illness affecting his ability to vote on several occasions. Despite this, he voted against William Wilberforce's compromise motion on the Queen Caroline affair in 1820, for parliamentary reform in 1822, against the Irish unlawful societies bill in 1825, and for alteration for the corn laws in 1825. He had just one intervention during this period of his career, presenting a petition of the journeymen fishmongers of Westminster, who wanted to sell fish after 10:00. Falling ill again in early 1826, he retired from the seat.

In 1828, he became deputy Postmaster General of the United Kingdom to his father, and then began to take part in local affairs, chairing the anniversary meeting of the Wareham Church Missionary Society in August of the same year. While he did not stand for election at Wareham again in 1830 or 1831, his brother Granby was elected a Whig MP for the seat in the later year.

Following his father's suicide in late 1831, Calcraft returned to parliament in the same seat in 1832 as an "anti-reformer" and, becoming a Conservative in 1834, held the seat until 1841 when he was defeated. He once more returned to the seat, this time as a Whig, in 1857, and held the seat until the next general election in 1859 when he did not seek re-election.

Later life

After leaving parliament, Calcraft became High Sheriff of Dorset from 1867 to 1868, with his eldest son John Hales Montagu serving as Liberal MP for Wareham from 1865 to 1868, and his third son, Henry George, becoming permanent secretary to the Board of Trade from 1886 to 1893.

Calcraft died in 1880 at St George Hanover Square, London, and was noted by The Times as a "fine example of the country gentleman and the squire", while the writer Jane Ellen Panton in 1909 said he was "one of the most magnificient [sic?] old men that I have ever seen". His estate was inherited by his eldest surviving son, William Montagu.

References

  1. Rayment, Leigh (13 June 2017). "The House of Commons: Constituencies beginning with "W"". Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page. Archived from the original on 17 July 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. "Local Election Intelligence". Salisbury and Winchester Journal. 14 March 1857. p. 4. Retrieved 17 July 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. ^ Farrell, Stephen (2009). Fisher, D. R. (ed.). "CALCRAFT, John Hales (1796–1880)". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  4. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (e-book) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. p. 318. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byJohn Erle-Drax Member of Parliament for Wareham
1857–1859 		Succeeded byJohn Erle-Drax
Preceded byGranby Calcraft
Charles Wood 		Member of Parliament for Wareham
1832–1841 		Succeeded byJohn Erle-Drax
Preceded byJohn Calcraft
Thomas Denman 		Member of Parliament for Wareham
1820–1826
With: John Calcraft 		Succeeded byJohn Calcraft
Charles Baring Wall
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