Family and Education

bap. 12 Sept. 1676, 1st s. of Sir Thomas Middleton*.  educ. St. Catharine’s, Camb. 1696.  m. 14 July 1696, Elizabeth, da. of Sir Richard Onslow, 3rd Bt.*, 5da.  suc. fa. 1702.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Colchester 1701.2

V.-adm. Essex 1714–d.3

Biography

As the son of a Court Whig and the son-in-law of the Whig Speaker Sir Richard Onslow, 3rd Bt., Middleton’s own Whig sympathies are not surprising. His entry into Parliament for the county may partly be explained by Onslow’s intimacy with Peter King*, a close friend of Sir Francis Masham, 3rd Bt.*, who found himself in need of a partner in 1707 when Lord Walden (Henry Howard*) was called to the Upper House. Middleton won the by-election, and was marked as a Whig early in 1708. Returned again at the general election of that year, he voted early in 1709 in favour of the naturalization of the Palatines. He told for the Whigs on three occasions: on 1 Feb. 1709 over the disputed election for Newcastle-under-Lyme; on 30 Mar. on a matter relating to the estates of the Marquess of Lindsey (Hon. Robert Bertie*); and on 8 Apr. in favour of a third reading for a bill enlarging the capital stock of the Bank of England. He voted for the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell in 1710.

Middleton retained his seat at the 1710 election, and was marked as a Whig on the ‘Hanover list’. On 7 Dec. 1711 he voted for the ‘No Peace without Spain’ motion. In May 1713 he was listed as an opponent of the French wines duty bill, and voted as a Whig against the French commerce bill on 18 June. Defeated at the 1713 election, he was nevertheless appointed vice-admiral of Essex the following year. He regained his seat in 1715 and was listed as a Whig, but his return to Westminster was curtailed by his death from diabetes on 29 Apr. He had no male heirs, and his will provided for raising portions for his five daughters out of the sale of his estate.4

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Mark Knights

Notes

• 1. Misc. Gen. et. Her. ser. 3, ii. 265–9.
• 2. Oath Bk. of Colchester ed. Benham, 233.
• 3. EHR, xxiii. 743.
• 4. Norf. RO, Ketton-Cremer mss WKC 7/21 (404x1), Katherine to Ashe Windham*, [1713]; W. Yorks. Archs. (Leeds), Vyner mss 13904, Sir William Robinson* to his wife, 30 Apr. [1715]; Morant, Essex, ii. 579.