A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



Of the older untitled families which remained through the i8th and 19th 

 centuries, the most active were the Burgoynes,*'* Osborns,*** Alstons,**' Monoux 

 (surviving as Paynes),*" Harveys,*" and Gerys (now Wade-Gerys) .*'* Besides 

 these, the Custs,**" the Ludlows, the Barnards,*'" their successors at Cople, the 

 Pyms*" of Sandy, Sir Robert IngUs, hart.,*'' of Milton Bryan, the Gilpins*"" of 

 HockclifFe, the Stuarts,*'* the Astells,*" Crawleys,*'« Polhills,*" Bassetts,*'* 

 Howard of Cardington, and the Howards *" of Bedford, have taken their part 

 in the business of the county, which has of recent years enjoyed the advantage 

 of the sound judgement and ripe experience of Viscount Peel, while it has 

 lately welcomed the services of Arthur Russell, Lord Ampthill. 



The connexion of the Whitbread family with the representation was 

 maintained until recently by the present owner of Southill, Mr. Samuel 

 Whitbread, who sat for the borough from 1852 to 1895, while his son, 

 Mr. S. H. Whitbread, represented the Luton Division from 1892 to 1895. 

 Until quite recently, both town and county generally returned local men, 

 though there were exceptions to this rule in the i8th century, when several 

 nominees of the Duke of Bedford were returned for the borough. The 

 exigencies of party organization have brought about a change, and no 

 local man, in the natural sense of the term, has represented Bedford since 

 Mr. Whitbread's retirement. 



The representation of the county and borough remained unaffected by 

 the Reform Acts of 1832 and 1868, but in 1885 the borough lost one 

 member and the county was divided into two one-member constituencies. The 

 northern or Biggleswade Division comprises the sessional divisions of Bedford, 

 Biggleswade, and Sharnbrook, with the parishes of Ampthill, Clophill, Cran- 

 field, Haynes, Houghton Conquest, Lidlington, Marston Mortaine, Maulden, 

 and Millbrook in Ampthill sessional division, and the municipal borough of 



*" Sir John Burgoyne, bart., M. P. county, 1735-47. Sir John M. Burgoyne, high sheriff 1852 and 1868. 



'" Sir Danvers Osbom, bart., M.P. county 1747-53. John Osborn, esq., M.P. county 1806-7, 

 1818-20. Sir George Robert Osbom, high sheriff 1857. 



"* Sir Rowland Alston, bart., M.P. county 1722-34 ; Thomas Alston, esq., M.P. county 1754-61. 



*" Sir Philip Monoux, bart., M.P. borough 1705, died 1707. Sir Peter Payne, bart., M.P. county, 

 1831-2. SirC. G. Payne, high sheriff 1851. *" John Harvey, esq., of Ickwellbury, M.P. county 1713-5. 



488 William Gery of Bushmead, an active J. P. in 1791-3 ; Beds. Co. Rec. i, ju6 ami. 



"* John Hume Cust (Viscount Alford), eldest son of the Earl of Brownlow, M.P. county 1835 till his 

 death in 1851. Henry Francis Cockayne-Cust, high sheriff 1869. 



'" Thomas Barnard, esq., M.P. for borough 1857-9. Mr. Barnard's house, Cople House, was the seat 

 for some years of the Earls of Ludlow. The third and last earl died unmarried at the age of eighty-three in 

 1842, and left his Irish Ardsalla estates to the Duke of Bedford, who settled them on Lord John Russell (his 

 brother) ; Spencer Walpole, Li/e of Lord 'John Russell, ii, 74 ; and Lodge, Peerage, 1836. 



*^' Francis Pym, esq., of ' The Hasells,' M.P. county 1802-18, 1820-6. Mr. Guy Pym, a member of the 

 same family, became a tenant of Caesar's Camp, Sandy, and so a resident in the county when he came forward 

 as a candidate for the borough. He sat as M.P. for Bedford from 1895 to 1906. 



'" High sheriff 1824, chairman of Quarter Sessions 1828 ; Beds. Co. Rec. 268. 



*" Richard T. Gilpin of Hockcliffe Grange, M.P. county 1 8 5 1 (on death of Hume [Cust] Egerton), to 1 8 80. 



"* William Stuart, M.P. county 1830-1, high sheriff 1846. Henry Stuart, M.P. borough 1841 to his 

 death, 1854. William Stuart, M.P. 1854-7, 1859-68, 1883-4, high sheriff 1875. 



'" William Astell, esq., M.P. county 1 841-7. 



'■" Samuel Crawley, esq., M.P. borough 1833-41. John Sambrook Crawley, high sheriff 1858. 



*" Frederick Polhill, esq., M.P. borough 1831-2, 1835-47. Frederick Charles Polhill-Turner of How- 

 bury, 1874-80, high sheriff 1854. 



"" Francis Bassett, esq., of The Heath, Leighton Buzzard, M.P. county 1872-5, high sheriff 1882. 



"' John Howard of Cardington, high sheriff 1773, was the celebrated prison reformer ; but there is no 

 connexion between him and the Bedford family represented by James Howard, esq., late of Clapham Park, a 

 member of the well-known firm of agricultural implement manufacturers, M.P. for the borough 1868-74. 

 His brother. Sir Frederick Howard, was county alderman 1889-95, and James Howard's two sons have both 

 served as high sheriff, Harold in 1899 and Geoffrey in 1907. 



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