Humphrey Minchin
Humphrey Minchin (1727–1796) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1778 and 1796.
Minchin was the eldest son of Paul Minchin of Ballinakill, King’s County and his wife Henrietta Bunbury, daughter of Joseph Bunbury of Johnstown, county Carlow. He entered Trinity College, Dublin on 11 January 1742, aged 14. He married Clarinda Cuppidge, daughter of George Cuppidge of Dublin on 4 August 1750.[1]
In 1774 Minchin canvassed Wootton Bassett but withdrew without becoming a candidate. He was elected Member of Parliament for Okehampton at a by-election on 11 June 1778 on the interest of John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer. He was re-elected after a contest in 1780 . In 1783 from April to December he was Clerk of the Ordnance. He was nominated again by the Spencer family at Okehampton in the 1784 general election. Although he was defeated, he petitioned and was seated on 27 April 1785. Spencer intended giving up his interest at Okehampton at the next election and made this clear to Minchin in the autumn of 1787 allowing him to keep the seat until the dissolution. Spencer then washed his hands of him and he was called ‘the miscreant Minchin’ by the satirists. At the 1790 general election he was returned for Bossiney, a seat placed at the disposal of friends of government by its patron Lord Mount Edgcumbe.[1]
Minchin had given his support to Pitt and in return constantly bothered him for an Irish peerage. After two attempts before 1790, he renewed his application on 8 July 1793, complaining that favours were bestowed on people who had joined Pitt ‘at the last hour of the day’ while he had ‘strenuously and assiduously’ supported him for seven years. He claimed that his property and connections in Ireland were ‘much greater than those of many who have received that honour’. He also pointed out that his regular attendance in Parliament exposed him to the ‘sarcasms of Mr Sheridan and many more who not attending to the principles on which I left them and joined you take every occasion to laugh at and reproach me for the folly of my conduct in quitting them’. He then asked Pitt to address his reply to him as Lt.-col. North Hants Regiment Tunbridge Wells, ‘because there are other persons of my name here to whom I do not wish to have the subject of it by mistake communicated’. He made another application on 3 July 1794, assuring Pitt that Dundas and Rose, with whom he had spoken on the subject, were wrong in supposing that he was of no consequence in Ireland, where ‘the largest share’ of his property lay, and that ‘from the particular situation respecting my family at this time it will be of much more value than a greater favour at another’. Minchin repeated his allegation that ‘much depends upon it’ on 3 August, and on 23 November in response a ‘circular Treasury letter’ requesting his attendance he reproached Pitt for not appreciating his services – although he said that he would continue to be among Pitt’s ‘steady friends’. [1]
Minchin died very suddenly on 26 March 1796. He was about to sit down to dinner but as he reached to hang up his hat, he had a fit, and died almost at once. [1]
References
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Okehampton 1778–1784 With: Richard Vernon |
Succeeded by John Luxmoore Thomas Wiggens |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Okehampton 1785–1790 With: Viscount Malden |
Succeeded by Colonel John St Leger Robert Ladbroke |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Bossiney 1790–1796 With: Hon. James Archibald Stuart |
Succeeded by Hon. Evelyn Pierrepont Hon. James Archibald Stuart |
