Family and Education

b. 1767, 3rd surv. s. of John, and Earl De La Warr, by Mary, da. of Lt.-Gen. John Wynyard. educ. Harrow 1774. m. (1) 17 Apr. 1792, Charlotte (d. 13 June 1795), da. and coh. of Richard Michell of Culham Court, Berks., 1da.; (2) 31 May 1798, Maria, da. of Richard Myddelton^† of Chirk Castle, sis. and coh. of Richard Myddelton*, 1s. surv.

Offices Held

Groom of bedchamber 1810-15.

Common councilman, Denbigh 1801; sheriff, Berks. 1821-2.

Capt. Berks. vols. 1803, 2 Berks. militia 1808.

Biography

The younger son of a soldier and courtier, West owed his seat in Parliament to his second wife, coheiress of the Chirk Castle interest at Denbigh. He held the seat for only one Parliament, being ousted in 1806 by his brother-in-law Robert Biddulph, who had married his wife’s elder sister. Biddulph and he did not see eye to eye, and although West did not himself seek to return to Parliament he sponsored the successful candidature of Viscount Kirkwall against Biddulph in 1812, and in 1820 put up his son, who later represented the boroughs.

While in Parliament, West gave a silent support to administration. He was listed initially as doubtful, then as a friend of Pitt’s government in 1804 and 1805, opposing Whitbread’s censure of Melville, 8 Apr. 1805. In the autumn of 1804 the King had visited him at Culham. In 1813 he applied to the Queen (who felt ‘a sincere regard’ for him, his father having been ‘one of her earliest and most faithful servants’) for ‘an Irish barony of the title of Myddelton chiefly with a view to give weight to that interest in the county of Denbigh which has been devoted to the support of his Majesty’s government’. Nothing came of this. West died 22 Mar. 1852.

Diary of Mrs Philip Lybbe Powys, 356; Sidmouth mss, Sir H. Taylor to Sidmouth, 19 June 1813.

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes