Family and Education

b. aft. 1691, 1st s. of John Bankes, M.P., of Kingston Lacy and Corfe Castle, and bro. of Henry Bankes.1 unm. suc. fa. 1714.

Offices Held

Biography

John Bankes was the great-grandson of Sir John Bankes, M.P., chief justice of the common pleas, who acquired the manor and castle of Corfe in 1635,2 and of Lady Mary Bankes, famous for her defence of Corfe Castle against Parliament during the Civil War. His grandfather, Sir Ralph Bankes, represented the borough 1660-77, and his father in eight Parliaments from 1698 until his death. Standing as a Tory in 1715, he failed to retain his father’s seat and was also unsuccessful at a by-election in 1718 after a double return. Returned in 1722, he was re-elected unopposed in 1727 and 1734, voting consistently against the Government in all recorded divisions except on the motion for Walpole’s removal in February 1741. He handed over the family seat to his brother, Henry, in 1741, did not stand again, and died 26 Jan. 1772.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

• 1. His parents had a Faculty Office licence to marry, 30 May 1691.
• 2. Hutchins, Dorset, i. 471; iii. 240.