William Ponsonby, 1st Baron de Mauley
William Francis Spencer Ponsonby, 1st Baron de Mauley (31 July 1787 – 16 May 1855) was an English Whig and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1826 and 1837. He was raised to the Peerage in 1838.
Life
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Ponsonby was the youngest child of 3rd Earl of Bessborough and his wife Henrietta Ponsonby, Countess of Bessborough.[1]
Ponsonby was elected Member of Parliament for Poole in 1826 and held the seat until 1831, when he lost it in a by-election to Lord Ashley.[2][3] He was then MP for Knaresborough between June and December 1832.[4] At the 1832 UK general election he was elected MP for Dorset and held the seat until 1837.[5] In 1838 he was created Baron de Mauley. Whilst an MP for Poole, Ponsonby and Benjamin Lester opened Poole's first public library in 1830.[3]
When the marriage of his sister Lady Caroline Lamb to William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, began to break up, he strongly supported Caroline.[6] Unfortunately he was not noted for tact or intelligence—Melbourne's sister Emily Lamb, Countess Cowper, described him as universally regarded as "an ass and a jackanapes".[6] Ponsonby reminded Melbourne that the Lamb family were socially parvenu, and that his sister had married beneath her; although true, these remarks were so tactless that Melbourne broke off any further dealings with him.[6]
Family
On 8 August 1814, Ponsonby married Lady Barbara Ashley-Cooper (the only daughter and heir of the 5th Earl of Shaftesbury and a co-heir of the medieval Barony of Mauley, 1789–1844). They had three children:[1]
- Hon. Charles Frederick Ashley Cooper (1815–1896, later the 2nd Baron de Mauley)
- Hon. Frances Anne Georgiana (1817–1910), married George Kinnaird, 9th Lord Kinnaird.
- Hon. Ashley George John (1831–1898)
References
- 1 2 Burke, John Bernard (1845). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. H. Colburn. p. 284. Retrieved 15 October 2016.
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 2)
- 1 2 Legg, Rodney (2005). The Book of Poole: Harbour and Town. Halsgrove. p. 55. ISBN 1841144118.
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "K" (part 2)
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 2)
- 1 2 3 Lord David Cecil, Melbourne, Pan Books edition 1965, p. 151.
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by William Ponsonby
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Benjamin Lester John Dent |
Member of Parliament for Poole 1826–1831 With: Benjamin Lester |
Succeeded by Benjamin Lester Sir John Byng |
| Preceded by Hon. Henry Cavendish George Tierney |
Member of Parliament for Knaresborough June–December 1832 With: Hon. Henry Cavendish |
Succeeded by John Richards Benjamin Rotch |
| Preceded by Edward Portman Lord Ashley |
Member of Parliament for Dorset 1832–1837 Served alongside: Lord Ashley William Bankes to 1835 Henry Sturt from 1835 |
Succeeded by Lord Ashley John Fox-Strangways Henry Sturt |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron de Mauley 1838–1855 |
Succeeded by Charles Ponsonby |