VINCENT, Henry (c.1686-1719), of Trelavan, nr. Fowey, Cornw.

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

Constituency

Dates

1708 - 1 Nov. 1719

Family and Education

b. c.1686, 1st surv. s. of Henry Vincent, M.P., of Trelavan, commr. of victualling, by Rebecca Serle of Wanstead, Essex; bro. of Nicholas Vincent. m. 4 Jan. 1706 (with £19,000), Anne, da. and h. of Henry Stevens of Chelsea, wid., 1s. d.v.p. suc. fa. 1717.1

Offices Held

Commr. of victualling 1711-18; dep. paymaster of the tin 1714-d.

Biography

Vincent belonged to a Cornish family of good standing, who had represented Grampound, Lostwithiel, Mitchell and Truro, as well as Fowey, where they had founded the grammar school. His grandfather, Walter Vincent, M.P., baron of the Exchequer under Charles II, had purchased Trelavan in 1669. He and his father, whom he succeeded as commissioner of victualling, were Tories under Queen Anne, acting as agents for Lord Lansdowne, who managed Cornish elections under Harley in 1713.2 In 1715 he appears to have acted in the same capacity for the new Whig ministry, under whom he not only retained his office but secured one for his younger brother, Nicholas. Classed as a Whig who would often vote with the Tories, he voted for the septennial bill, but against the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts. Owing to illness, he resigned his place in the victualling office in 1718, dying of a fever at Aix-la-Chapelle 1 Nov. 1719, aged 33.3

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Thos. Tonkin’s Hist. Cornw. f. 119, R. Inst. of Cornwall.
  • 2. HMC Portland, v. 233-4, 241.
  • 3. Tonkin, op. cit.