MUNDY, Wrightson (?1712-62), of Osbaston, Leics. and Markeaton, Derbys.

Mundy was descended from Sir John Mundy, lord mayor of London 1522-3, who purchased Markeaton in Derbyshire. His grandfather, Francis Mundy, acquired Osbaston by his marriage to the heiress of the Wrightson estates. His father, a zealous Jacobite, had impaired his health and fortune by contesting Leicestershire in 1719.Nichols, Leics. iv. 523. Thomas Carte, the Jacobite historian, in a memorandum to the Pretender, speaks of him as ‘zealous in his father’s principles’.Stuart mss 216/111. Before the county election of 1741 he wrote, 23 Sept. 1740, to his friend, Sir Thomas Cave, who was standing for Leicestershire with Edward Smith but was unable to canvass owing to an attack of gout:

Mr. Ashby’s [the Whig candidate] continual application to the freeholders and our inactivity I much fear gives him great advantage. It was not thought improper by the same friends who accidentally met last night to ride the county immediately, and as you cannot do it yourself, we thought it advisable you should by proxy. I trouble you with this to inform you that I will attend Mr. Smith as your deputy, if you think proper and will make your excuse to the freeholders in the best manner I can. My attending Smith can do no harm and if it should be of any service to you, I shall think myself sufficiently requited for my trouble,

adding, 6 Oct.:

I pretend not to arrogate to myself an interest superior to any other gentleman. What I have is owing to my father’s name.

Smith reported to Cave, 23 Feb. 1741, that

our good and faithful friend Mr. Mundy sent hither last night a particular detail of his proceedings, which are very numerous and I think full of success, the pains he has taken are prodigious.

In 1747 Cave stood down in favour of Mundy, who was returned unopposed.Braye mss at City of Leicester mus. 23D57/3027, 3028, 3126. The 2nd Lord Egmont, in his electoral survey c.1749-50, wrote of him as

a young man reputed a thorough Jacobite. He is talked up among the Tories as the most promising man of the whole party but has never spoken yet. He has talked of late in the same style with Lister [Thomas], that nothing but ill usage and despair had made men Jacobites.

He did not stand in 1754 because of ill health.Nichols, ii. 542. He died 18 June 1762.