PLUMER, William (?1686-1767), of Blakesware, Herts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

10 Feb. 1721 - 1722
1734 - 1741
1 May 1755 - 1761

Family and Education

b. ?1686, 2nd surv. s. of John Plumer, bro. of Richard and Walter Plumer. educ. Bishop’s Stortford; Peterhouse, Camb. 9 May 1702, aged 15; G. Inn 1702, called 1708, bencher 1728. m. 9 Oct. 1731, Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Byde of Ware Park, Herts., 2s. 4da. suc. fa. 1719, bro. 1746.

Offices Held

Biography

Plumer was brought into Parliament as a government supporter in 1721, but did not stand in 1722. At the Hertfordshire county election that year he supported Charles Caesar, subject to ‘the obligation I owe to my particular friends’, i.e. the local Whigs.1 He again supported Caesar in 1727. In 1734 he was chosen as a candidate for the county at the general meeting of the gentlemen, clergy, and freeholders.2 He was returned, defeating Caesar, who complained that the ‘Tory gentlemen in Hertfordshire were grossly imposed upon ... to choose a gentleman in my room who there is all the reason in the world to believe will never or at least very seldom vote with those I always did’,3 that is to say with the Opposition, but there is no record of his voting. He is included in a list of absent ministerial supporters on 18 Nov. 1739.4

He died 12 Dec. 1767.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: A. N. Newman

Notes

  • 1. Cottrell Dormer letter bk. A. 23, Rousham mss, ex inf. L. M. Munby.
  • 2. See HERTFORDSHIRE.
  • 3. Cottrell Dormer letter bk. C. 32.
  • 4. Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss.