LUDLOW, Peter, 1st Earl Ludlow [I] (1730-1803), of Ardsallagh, co. Meath, and Great Stoughton, Hunts.

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

1768 - 1796

Family and Education

b. 21 Apr. 1730, o. surv. s. of Peter Ludlow of Ardsallagh, co. Meath by Mary, da. and h. of John Preston of Ardsallagh.  m. 26 June 1753, Lady Frances Lumley Saunderson, da. of Thomas, 3rd Earl of Scarbrough, 3s. 4da.  suc. fa. 1750; cr. Baron Ludlow [I] 19 Dec. 1755; Earl Ludlow [I] 3 Oct. 1760.

Offices Held

P.C. 10 Apr. 1782; comptroller of the Household 1782-4.

Biography

Lady Scarbrough wrote to the Duke of Newcastle, 25 Jan. 1758, asking that her son-in-law Ludlow be made an Irish earl—‘I all along declined accepting of his being made a baron only, as that I think has not been refused to almost anybody that has asked it.’1 Newcastle, who had ‘for some years’ been much solicited by Lady Scarbrough in the matter, applied to Bedford, then lord lieutenant of Ireland. Bedford demurred,2 but Ludlow was made an earl.

On 3 Dec. 1767 Lady Scarbrough wrote again to Newcastle asking him to return Ludlow for Boroughbridge—‘I have long wished him in Parliament; but the purchase he has made of house and lands in Huntingdonshire, makes it impossible for him to be at expense for that event.’ But the same day Rockingham wrote to Newcastle that Lord Carysfort having declined, the Duke of Manchester ‘recommends Lord Ludlow’.3 He stood jointly with Lord Hinchingbrooke, defeating Sir Robert Bernard, after which they were returned unopposed at the next four general elections.

In 1779 the Public Ledger said in two lines practically all that there is to be said about Ludlow as Member: ‘Connected by strongest ties with the Rockingham party, and always votes with Opposition.’ Between 1768 and 1782 his name appears in 21 division lists, invariably on the Opposition side. But there is no record of his having ever spoken in the House—except on 27 Mar. 1783 when as comptroller of the Household he brought a message from the King. He voted for Shelburne’s peace preliminaries, 18 Feb. 1783; and for Fox’s East India bill, 27 Nov. 1783. After that he continued to support the Fox-Portland group, but on 18 Apr. 1785 voted with Pitt for parliamentary reform—a non-party question.

He died 26 Oct. 1803.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: Sir Lewis Namier

Notes

  • 1. Add. 32877, ff. 233-4.
  • 2. Bedford Corresp. ii. 327, 330.
  • 3. Add. 32987, ff. 153, 163.