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

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

12 Oct. 1774 - 22 Mar. 1775
1780 - 1790

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.1

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.2

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.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Mary M. Drummond

Notes

  • 1. Debrett, ii. 296.
  • 2. Fortescue, v. 417, 468.