feeling a bit cranky this evening so diverted it into productivity, and we now have two new #Wikipedia MP articles - Nicholas Lynch ("a wealthy man, who, on the hustings or in the House of Commons, was unable to open his mouth") and Pickering Phipps (a Conservative who surprisingly got elected in a very Liberal town). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Lynch_(politician) & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickering_Phipps_(MP)

We have articles on everyone who has sat in Parliament since 1892, and I think we are only missing about fifty to get a clean sweep back to the Reform Act. Which is pretty impressive!

And a third - George Vansittart, an unremarkable Tory landowner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_Vansittart_(MP)

On a roll, so here is #4 - Robert French-Brewster, who ended up with a high-profile and presumably eye-wateringly expensive divorce case (five QCs instructed by the various parties, including the Solicitor General, and trailing at the end of the list of juniors one H. Asquith - not used to seeing him with only one initial) #wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_French-Brewster

French-Brewster was elected for Portartlington in 1883, 70 votes to 57(!) - I hadn't realised that some of the tiny Irish seats survived that late. (It was swept away in 1885)

On examination I think it was probably the smallest one left though - 147 electors in 1880 (134 polled), just behind the 194 in Kinsale (154 polled). After reorganization in 1885, the smallest remaining Irish seat had almost two thousand (Kilkenny city), and most were well over five thousand.

Five: a very unexciting Dublin businessman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Meagher_(MP) #wikipedia

I think we now have everyone who sat since the 1870s, with the exception of one man who lasted a month in 1892 before his election was overturned.

Six, William Ridley-Colborne, died suddenly aged 32 after five years in Parliament. Elected for Richmond, in the days when it was an even safer Whig seat than it is a Conservative one now - they had, I think, just one contested election between 1727 and 1866. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ridley-Colborne

There are now only two MPs left who served in Parliament after 1841 and do not yet have #wikipedia articles; Joseph Feilden, Blackburn 1865-1869, and John Bruce, who was only very technically an MP (elected July 1892, election overturned August 1892, never sat)

Back on the train of #wikipedia MPs - George Alfred Muskett, who at first glance was an obscure one-term MP who never did anything, and on further investigation, uh. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Muskett

* married heiress, thrown in jail (she was a ward of court), reached settlement, she Mysteriously Died one year later
* spent all her fortune on building a business empire including a bank
* bank probably bribed enough voters to make him an MP
* left Parliament, died suddenly, bank collapsed

Opinions differ on "died suddenly" - historian suggests suicide because his bank was about to collapse owing 18s in the pound; contemporaries suggested it was the stress of the Times publishing a story saying he owned a brothel in Regent St.

(He did not. That may have been about the only line of business he wasn't in.)

Next up: John Hodson Kearsley, a Wigan brewer who succeeded his cousin & uncle as an anti-reform MP, an act that was so popular with the townsfolk they threw stones at him on the hustings and smashed his windows. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hodson_Kearsley

HoP quotes a contemporary: "He had such a comfortable notion of his own senatorial qualifications, and this notion was so vividly imprinted on his little round pug-looking face, that it was impossible to look on him and not be pleased." https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/kearsley-john-1785-1842

Trying to imagine a modern Speaker just corpsing in laughter during one of the great constitutional debates (this is, I think, third reading of the 1832 Reform Act). Would liven things up.

Third one for the day: John George Boss, Northallerton 1832-1835, whose political career does not seem to have been particularly exciting compared to his naval one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_George_Boss

And a fourth: Sir Thomas Charles Style, Bart., who does not seem to have had a very exciting career either before or after Parliament. But I was amused to find this when looking for his obituary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Thomas_Style,_8th_Baronet

And (last for today!) a fifth, Viscount Forbes, who had what seems to be an almost entirely notional Army career starting with a commission at the age of nine - coincidentally, in a regiment his father had just raised https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Forbes,_Viscount_Forbes

Seven MPs to go until we finish the set.

Number six: Thomas Calley, who went bankrupt after spending almost £5000 on his election expenses and failing to get in. (His agent: "[he] don't mind how much money is spent ... [but then] find it not convenient to pay it.").

Re-elected thirteen years later as a vague Tory, examined the Reform Act, and decided it all seemed jolly good after all so helped push it through. Redemption for everyone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Calley_(politician)

It's a good thing we don't have any more of this kind of government two centuries on, tho.

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/calley-thomas-1780-1836

Number seven: Swynfen Jervis, a radical who had a habit of getting in fights with the whips and then sending the letters to the papers (which enlivened things no end). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swynfen_Jervis

The @VictorianCommons blog on him is worth a look https://victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/defying-the-whip-rebel-mp-of-the-month-swynfen-jervis-1798-1867/

Number eight: Horace St Paul, a Northumberland landowner who was also a Count of the Austrian Empire for slightly murky reasons involving his grandfather. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Horace_St_Paul,_2nd_Baronet

Number nine: Owen Jones Ellis Nanney, who was elected after an election petition ... and then lost his seat on a counter petition. Total career in Parliament, two and a half months. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Jones_Ellis_Nanney

Number ten: Joseph Feilden, who contested an election in 1868 against his cousin, had the result voided on petition, and then his son won the resulting by-election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Feilden_(died_1870)