George Booth, MP

Family and Education b. c.1655, 4th but 2nd surv. s. of Sir George Booth by 2nd w., and bro. of Hon. Henry Booth. educ. G. Inn 1674. m. Lucy, da. of Hon. Robert Robartes of Lanhydrock, Cornw., 1s.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Chester 1673-80, Cheshire and Chester 1689-90; j.p. Mdx. and Westminster 1692-?d.

Commr. for customs 1689-94.2

Biography Booth seems to have acted as his brother’s political secretary before the Revolution, when his brother’s services and his own staunch Whiggism procured him a seat on the board of customs with a salary of £1,000 p.a., in which he was ‘so highly charged with corruption as it is said he understands nor minds no other part of the place’. Parliament was an obvious safeguard in such circumstances; his marriage gave him a footing in the West Country, and on the death of Charles Boone he managed, with the connivance of the mayor of Dartmouth, to secure a seat there, though not for long. The mayor’s practices in the creation of freemen after the receipt of the writ were a little too blatant, and to the general surprise, after a full hearing by the committee of elections, Booth was unseated. He left no other trace on the records of the Conven tion. He remained a court supporter even after losing his place in 1694, being no doubt dependent on his pension ‘for good, faithful and acceptable services’, and died on 11 June 1726.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690 Author: John. P. Ferris Notes 1. Ormerod, Cheshire, i. 534. 2. CSP Dom. 1689-90, p. 53; 1691-2, p. 222; Cal. Treas. Bks. x. 739. 3. Cal. Treas. Bks. ix. 82; xii. 120; CSP Dom. 1694-5, p. 181; CJ, x. 273; HMC Kenyon, 227; Musgrave, Obituary (Harl. Soc. xliv), 215.