Family and Education

b. 20 July 1761, 1st s. of Arthur, 4th Earl of Arran [I], by 1st w. Hon. Catherine Annesley, da. of William, 1st Visct. Glerawly [I]. m. 29 Dec. 1787, Mary, da. and h. of Sir John Tyrrell, 5th Bt., of Heron, Essex, s.p. suc. fa. as 5th Earl of Arran [I] 8 Oct. 1809.

Offices Held

MP [I] 1783-90, 1800.

Biography

Viscount Sudley sat in the Irish parliament of 1783 for Sir John Freke’s borough of Baltimore, probably by his father’s purchase. He owed his return for Donegal shortly before the dissolution of the Irish parliament to the interest of his brother-in-law the Marquess of Abercorn. Despite the curious claim in his obituary that he ‘never sat in either House of Parliament’, he was present on 18 Mar. 1801 and reported by the Castle to have attended the session of November 1801 (when he was appointed to the committee of East India judicature) and to have voted with government on 4 Mar. 1803. On the eve of Pitt’s return to power in 1804, it was alleged of him ‘votes with the Court and Lord Abercorn’. He was subsequently listed a supporter of Pitt and was in the government minority of 8 Apr. 1805 on Melville’s censure. He voted against the Catholic claims, 14 May 1805. ‘Much connected with Lord Abercorn and with the Court’ was the comment on him in May 1806; his wife was governess to the Princess Charlotte. There is no reported speech.

Sudley did not seek re-election in 1806. As Earl of Arran, he was a professed supporter of government in 1817. He died 20 Jan. 1837.

Gent. Mag. (1837), i. 316; Add. 40267, f. 140.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: Arthur Aspinall

Notes