POULETT, Hon. Vere (1761-1812), of Addington House, Bucks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1790 - 1796
1806 - 1807

Family and Education

b. May 1761, 2nd s. of Vere Poulett, 3rd Earl Poulett, by Mary, da. and coh. of Richard Butt of Overton in Arlingham, Glos. educ. Harrow 1774-6. m. bef. 1789, one Beecher, 1s. 5da.

Offices Held

Ensign, 62 Ft. 1779; lt. 85 Ft. 1779, capt. 1780; capt. 29 Ft. 1781; maj. 56 Ft. 1783; lt.-col. 60 Ft. 1793, half-pay 1795; brevet col. 1796; maj.-gen. (half-pay) 1802, lt.-gen. 1808; lt.-col. Mid Bucks vols. 1803.

Biography

Poulett was his brother’s choice when the family interest at Bridgwater was under challenge in 1789. The earl, claiming Pitt’s promise to serve his brother, requested a lieutenant-colonelcy in the Guards for him to prevent his having to serve with his regiment in Ireland, which would be ‘particularly inconvenient ... in the state things now are at Bridgwater’. Poulett himself had previously urged Pitt to secure him military appointments, in January 1786 and in November 1787, when he wished to be governor of Dartmouth Castle. He headed the poll in 1790. In 1791 he applied to Pitt first for a transfer to another regiment and then for a staff appointment in Ireland. He was listed among opponents of repeal of the Test Act in Scotland in April 1791, but was inconspicuous in the House. In 1794 he was an embarrassed spokesman for his brother with Pitt when the earl tried to get out of being appointed a lord of the bedchamber.1 He appears to have voted with the minority on the imperial loan, 5 Feb. 1795, but this seems more likely to have been William Powlett Powlett: a similar confusion had arisen on 12 Apr. 1791. His brother did not return him in 1796.

Poulett’s re-election for Bridgwater ten years later was under different auspices. In September 1804 he was known to be offering ‘in opposition to Lord Poulett’s interest’ and with Foxite and Grenvillite support. The formula succeeded, after Fox’s death, with Lord Grenville’s blessing. He was listed friendly to the abolition of the slave trade, but made no mark in the House. His brother discountenanced him at the election of 1807, when he was defeated, after he had relied on the family’s opponents in the borough. Had his petition to void the return succeeded, he was prepared to introduce Samuel Rogers, an undoubted Foxite, at Bridgwater.2 He died 15 Mar. 1812.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes

Inherited from Lady Kemeys Tynte and her sister Jane Busby in 1801 (Lipscomb, Bucks. ii. 507).

  • 1. PRO 30/8/168, ff. 217, 219, 221, 223, 234, 265.
  • 2. See BRIDGWATER; Chubb mss, Poulett to Chubb, 4 July 1807.