Philip Champion de Crespigny, Esquire

Biographical Summary

CRESPIGNY, Philip Champion (d.1803), of Burwood, nr. Cobham, Surr.

Family and Education

b. after 1731, 2nd s. of Philip Champion de Crespigny, proctor of the court of Admiralty, of Huguenot descent, by Anne, da. of Claude Fonnereau of Christ Church, Ipswich. educ. ?Eton 1748. m. (1) 24 Nov. 1762, Sarah, da. and h. of Thomas Cocksedge of Thetford, ?3s. 2da.; (2) 1 July 1774, Clarissa (d. 15 May 1782), da. of James Brooke, 1s. 2da., (3) 20 Feb. 1783, Dorothy, da. of Richard Scott of Betton, Salop, s.p.

Offices Held

Adv., Doctors’ Commons 1759; King’s proctor 1768-84.

Biography

In 1774 Crespigny was returned on the Fonnereau interest at Sudbury after a contest, but lost his seat on petition. In 1780 he was returned unopposed at Aldeburgh on the Fonnereau interest, and at Sudbury after a contest. He held both seats until 1781 when he lost Sudbury on petition, and continued to sit for Aldeburgh.

He supported North’s Administration to the end. His one recorded speech was on 21 Mar. 1781 when he spoke against the bill for excluding contractors from the House of Commons.

Crespigny’s name appears in an ‘Account of pensions added by Lord North which have ceased by death or otherwise’, sent to the King in April 1782. It is not clear why the pension was given or why it ceased. It is mentioned but not explained in a letter from North to the King in March 1782:

Mr. Crespigny, his Majesty’s proctor, had, before his coming into Parliament, an annual payment of £200 a year. In consequence of election assistance he was to have had £400 but could not hold it in Parliament, and therefore has never received any since the general election, and therefore wished either to have a pension of £400 to his wife or to have the salary annexed to his office.

On 19 Mar. 1782 his wife was granted a pension of £524 p.a. during pleasure.

Crespigny voted against Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783, for Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783, and against Pitt.

The English Chronicle in 1781 wrote about him: ‘His hauteur is so distinguished, that he is generally characterised ... by the profane, though very applicable appellation, of God Almighty’; and his obituary in the Gentleman’s Magazine (1803, p. 89) described him as ‘very much a man of fashion in his person and demeanour, full of anecdote, and with a turn for satirical humour that rendered him a very amusing companion’.

He died 1 Jan. 1803.

SOURCE: The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964

Other References

• Burke, Bernard, Sir. A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the peerage and baronetage of the British Empire. London : Harrison 1869. page 312

Philip was the fifth of seven children of Philip (1704-1765) and his wife Anne née Fonnereau. He was born on 1 April at his father's house at Doctors Commons in London. He was christened on 11 April at St Benets, Pauls Wharf. Philip senior was Marshall of the Court of Admiralty and Secretary of the French Hospital.
In 1741 the family moved to Denmark Hill, Camberwell where Philip senior had taken a lease of a house and sixteen acres.

Philip's older brother Claude (1734 - 1818) was educated at Eton and it is likely that Philip was also. (http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/cr... )

In 1759 at the age of twenty-one, Philip became an advocate at Doctors' Commons and was King's Proctor from 1768 to 1784. (http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/cr... )

A proctor was a legal practitioner in the ecclesiastical and admiralty courts. A King's Proctor acted in all causes concerning the King. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proctor) Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil law in London. The proctors, who were also associated with Doctors' Commons, were like present-day common law solicitors. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctors%27_Commons)

Marriages and children
Philip married four times. On 24 November 1762 Philip married Sarah Cocksedge in Norfolk. They married by licence; this licence was issued on 11 November. Sarah and Philip had four children: Thomas (1763 1799) Philip (1765 - 1851) Jane (1766 - 1785) Anne (1768 - 1844) Sarah died in April 1768 and was buried at St Marylebone on 13 April 1768. ('Marylebone', The Environs of London: volume 3: County of Middlesex (1795), pp. 242-279. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45438 Date accessed: 27 January 2014.)

Sarah was the daughter of Thomas Henry and Lydia Cocksedge. In 1764 title of Tottington manor passed to Philip as husband of Sarah.(Deeds of messuage held by Norfolk Record Office http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=153-wls&cid...) Philip probably sold his Norfolk holdings in 1772 as recorded in a private act of Parliament: Philip Champion Crespigny's estate: sale of hereditaments in Weeting (Norfolk) and purchase and settling others. (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/cy/changes/chron-tables/private/17)

Philip's second marriage was to Betsy Hodges in about 1771. Betsy was the widow of George Borradale whom she had married in 1765 (Parish Records Collection - marriage 1765 Hodges Borradale) Philip and Betsy had one son, Charles (1772 - 1774) who was christened 1 June 1772 in St Giles, Camberwell, and buried 21 October 1774 in the Church of St Albans. Betsy died in 1772, probably not long after giving birth to her son. She was buried at St Marylebone on 22 May 1772.

In 1794 Philip de Crespigny bought Talyllyn House and the Manor of Llangasty Talyllyn in Breconshire together with 2000 acres for £1600. In the advertisement for the sale the house was described as “a good old stone built and slated Mansion House... to which the present Proprietor meant to have added a regular Building” While owned by the de Crespignys, the house and outbuildings were extensively remodelled. From 1810 the estate was leased as a farm. It was sold in 1838 by Philip's son Charles Fox de Crespigny. Philip and his son Charles both served as High Sheriff of Brecknockshire or Breconshire, Philip in 1796 and Charles in 1812. The house was destroyed in the nineteenth century. ("History of the Farm." Tŷ-Mawr. Tŷ-Mawr Lime Ltd, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014. <http://www.lime.org.uk/history-of-the-farm/>.)