LAMBERT, Daniel (1685-1750), of Savage Gardens, Tower Hill, and Perrotts, Banstead, Surr.

Lambert, whose family had been settled at Perrotts since the sixteenth century, purchased the manor from an elder brother.Manning & Bray, Surr. ii. 589. A Portugal merchant, he was active in London politics, serving on committees set up by the common council to prepare the petitions against the excise bill, and the Spanish convention, and to press the merchants’ complaints against Spanish depredations.9 Apr. 1733, 20 Feb. 1739, Jnl. vols. 57, 58; Stuart mss 204/144. On the death of Humphry Parsons in March 1741 he served as lord mayor for the remainder of the year, receiving the thanks of the common council

for his constant attendance, his judicious and faithful discharge and great dispatch of the duties of that high station, for the easy access given his fellow citizens, and for the frequent opportunities he gave this court of meeting together for the dispatch of the public business in this City.12 Nov. 1741, Jnl. vol. 58.

Returned for London as a Tory that year, he voted against the Administration in all three Hanoverian divisions, but with them in February 1744 on an opposition motion to tack a demand for an inquiry into the state and disposition of the naval forces to the loyal address upon a threatened French invasion.Yorke’s parl. jnl. Parl. Hist. xiii. 649. He was knighted by George II on presenting the city’s address upon the same occasion.HMC Egmont Diary, iii. 286. On 6 Feb. 1745 he spoke against Pelham’s additional duty on wines, fearing, as a merchant engaged in the Portuguese trade, that

the King of Portugal would, in return for the new duty on his wines, lay a further impostion on our English manufactures, from which our commerce would receive a notable prejudice, and that of our rivals, the French, as much benefit.Yorke’s parl. jnl. Parl. Hist. xiii. 1127.

He lost his seat in 1747. Next year, meeting Frederick, Prince of Wales, who denounced the peace,

Sir Daniel, in the spirit of an old Tory, made no scruple of declaring his sentiments against a war on the continent, and added that we were incapable of prosecuting it for want of money.Yorke, Hardwicke, i. 666-7.

He died 13 May 1750 of gaol fever caught from the prisoners as he sat on the bench at the Old Bailey.Griffiths, Chrons. of Newgate, i. 438.