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GIPPS, George II (1783-1869), of Howletts, Ickham, Kent.
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Biography Detail
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Dates
Family and Education
b. 18 Dec. 1783, 1st s. of George Gipps I* by 2nd w. educ. Charterhouse 1793; St. John’s, Camb. 1801; L. Inn 1805. m. 3 May 1810, Jane, da. of John Bowdler of Hayes, 3s. 4da. suc. fa. 1800.
Offices Held
Capt. Ashford regt. Kent militia 1809.
Biography
Gipps owed his seat for Ripon to his stepmother’s relationship to Elizabeth Sophia Lawrence, patroness of the borough. In the House his inclination was to give an independent support to government. He was an occasional speaker sometimes dividing with opposition, though only one such vote is known before 1815: for Sheridan’s critical motion on the state of Ireland, 13 Aug. 1807. Listed ‘against the Opposition’ by the Whigs in 1810, he rallied to Perceval’s ministry on the address, 23 Jan., throughout the Scheldt question and against the discharge of the radical Gale Jones, 16 Apr. He was in the government minority on the Regency, 1 Jan. 1811, and likewise against a more efficient administration, 21 May 1812. On 13 May, in his first known speech, he advocated generous provision for Spencer Perceval’s family in view of the latter’s lack of rapacity regarding the emoluments of office. On 8 June he took three weeks’ leave of absence to attend his militia duties.
Gipps was on the Treasury list of supporters after the election of 1812. Following a line congenial to his patron, he invariably opposed Catholic relief in that Parliament. He voted with ministers on the civil list questions of 13 Apr., 8 and 31 May 1815, but was in the opposition majority on the Duke of Cumberland’s establishment bill on 3 July. He rallied to ministers on the army estimates, 6 and 8 Mar., on the property tax, 18 Mar., and on the civil list, 6 May 1816; but criticized the increased salaries of Admiralty clerks, 29 Mar., spoke and voted in favour of Milton’s motion on the unconstitutional use of the military, 13 May, and against the public revenues bill, 14 June, on which day he also opposed the tax on agricultural horses. Consistent with his speech of 14 June, he opposed the Irish vice-treasurer’s salary on 20 June. He further joined opposition on the composition of the finance committee, 7 Feb. 1817, but sided with government against the reduction of the Board of Admiralty, 25 Feb. He repeatedly opposed public lotteries (18 Mar. 1817, 4 May, 9 June 1819). He was in the majority against censure of the government for its employment of informers against sedition, 5 Mar. 1818, but in the majority against them on the Duke of Clarence’s marriage grant, 15 Apr. The son of a Canterbury banker, he opposed the chancellor of the Exchequer’s proposal to extend inquiry into bank-note forgery to other negotiable instruments after expressing fears that country banks would be put to the expense of engraved notes to prevent forgery, 14 May 1818. On 3 June he opposed inquiry into popular education. He was, however, with his father-in-law, a notable supporter of the building of new churches. In 1815 he signed the memorandum on it presented to Lord Liverpool and on 30 June 1817 requested his support for the Church Building Society (formed early in 1818).1 On 16 Mar. 1818 in debate he asked if the new churches bill would extend to parishes of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
Gipps was a well-wisher of Charles Tennyson* in the election of 18182 and may have regarded himself as following the same somewhat independent line. He was a spokesman for the London clergy, 24 Mar. 1819. He was in the government majority on the case of Wyndham Quin* (29 Mar.) in the first division, but in the minority with seven others who wished to excuse the House from proceeding to expulsion on the second.3 He voted against Tierney’s censure motion, 18 May, and in favour of the foreign enlistment bill, 10 June; but in the minorities on public lotteries, on the salt laws, 29 Apr., on delays in Chancery, 20 May, and for inquiry into the abuses of charitable foundations, 23 June 1819. He died 26 Apr. 1869.
