John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge-Erle-Drax, MP

John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax (6 October 1800 – 5 January 1887) was a British Member of Parliament (MP) during the Victorian era.

Contents [hide] 1 Personal life 2 Parliament 3 Bibliography 4 External links

Personal life [edit]Born John Sawbridge, he was the son of Samuel Elias Sawbridge, of Olantigh, and grandson of John Sawbridge, Lord Mayor of London in 1775.[1] John married Jane Frances Erle-Drax-Grosvenor, daughter of Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor, in 1827. On 13 August 1828, his wife's brother Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor died unmarried, and he succeeded to her family estates, including Charborough House, assuming the surname of Erle-Drax.[2]

He was a captain in the East Kent Militia, and raised a troop of the Dorsetshire Yeomanry in 1830 to deal with the Disturbances or Swing Riots of that year;[3][4] he held the patronage of five church livings, and was a deputy-lieutenant of Dorset in the late 1850s.[5]

Erle-Drax built his mausoleum, located beside Holnest church in the Blackmore Vale, fifteen years before his death. He included in the Byzantine-style design a letter box, through which he arranged to have The Times delivered daily. He died on 5 January 1887, at which time the date was added to the epitaph. The mausoleum was demolished in 1935 and replaced by a flat memorial stone.[6]

Parliament [edit]After serving a term as High Sheriff of Dorset in 1840 [7] Erle-Drax was the Conservative (Tory) Member of Parliament for Wareham for three periods between 1841 and 1880.[8] Wareham was a pocket borough with just 342 electors, controlled jointly by Erle-Drax and John Hales Calcraft, who arranged for one or the other of them to be returned at each election.[5] Immediately prior to the opening of the polls at one election, he made the following statement to the electors of Wareham: "I understand that some evil-disposed person has been circulating a report that I wish my tenants, and other persons dependent upon me, to vote according to their conscience. This is a dastardly lie, calculated to injure me. I have no wish of the sort. I wish, and intend, that these people should vote for me."[9]

During his tenure in the House of Commons, Erle-Drax was known as the "Silent MP". He made only one known statement in the House, which was a request that the Speaker of the House have a window opened.[6]

Erle-Drax's descendant, Richard Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, was elected as Member of Parliament [6] for South Dorset in the United Kingdom general election, 2010 using the 'truncated' name Richard Drax.[10]

• Wikipedia contributors. "John Erle-Drax." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland 6th ed. London : Harrison 1879. Vol I. page 478