Charles Allanson, MP

WESTBURY 1 June 1715 - 1722 Family and Education b. ?1662, 1st s. of Charles Allanson of York by his 2nd w. Grace, da. of Sir Robert Jacques. educ. East Newton; St. John’s, Camb. 6 May 1680, aged 17; M. Temple 1682, called 1689. m. (lic. 23 July 1698) Alethea, da. of Sir Henry Thompson of Escrick, Yorks., wid. of Henry Tempest of Tong, Yorks., s.p. suc. fa. 1676.

Offices Held Sec. to bankruptcy commission 1709-?1716.

Biography Allanson, a lawyer, was grandson of Sir William Allanson, mayor of York and M.P. for York in the Long Parliament. He owed his place, worth ‘near a thousand a year’, to his wife’s niece Mary, wife of Lord Chancellor Cowper. She wrote of him, 2 Dec. 1714:

My Lord, in both times of his being chancellor, has let him officiate, though my Lord says he opens the business so ill that he can never understand what he reads but is forced to read all the briefs himself.1 At the 1715 election Lord Cowper sent Allanson and George Evans down to Westbury to challenge Lord Abingdon’s interest there. After a double return they were awarded the seats on petition (see Annesley, Francis). In Parliament, Allanson voted for the septennial bill in 1716 and the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts in 1719, but against the peerage bill. He did not stand again, though on the death of George I it was reported to Walpole that

Mr. Allanson is now invited down to this borough [Westbury], who will either choose him or any that he shall recommend, but the expense being too great for him — he has already laid out so much money in the gaining the borough out of such hands, without the least recompense — hopes he may not be thought unreasonable in desiring to represent some easier and less expensive borough.2 He died July 1729.3

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754 Author: R. S. Lea Notes 1.Lady Cowper Diary, 27. 2. Undated memo. Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss 68. 3. PCC Admon. Act Bk. 1729.