Charles Stanhope (1673–1760)

Charles Stanhope (1673–1760) was an English barrister and politician. Deeply implicated in transactions related to the South Sea Bubble, possibly concerned with political corruption, he was strongly defended by those in government, and was acquitted of all charges brought against him.[1]

Life

The son of John Stanhope of Elvaston, Derbyshire, he was the brother of Thomas Stanhope and William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, and cousin of James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope who gave him an under-secretary position, in 1714. Of the Inner Temple, he was called to the bar in 1703.[1]

Stanhope served as Secretary to the Treasury 1717–1721, and was elected Member of Parliament for Milborne Port, sitting over the same period. James Stanhope and Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland were investigated over dealings in South Sea Company stock after the Bubble, and Charles Stanhope also; but he avoided the ruin of political career that came upon Sunderland.[1]

Subsequently Stanhope was given the safe seat of Aldborough by the Duke of Newcastle, holding it to 1734, and then sitting for Harwich to 1741.[1] He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1726.[2]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Stanhope, Charles (1673–1760), of Elvaston, Derbys., History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  2. ↑ Thomas Thomson (1812). History of the Royal Society: From Its Institution to the End of the Eighteenth Century. R. Baldwin. p. xxxvi.
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