KENT, Samuel (c.1683-1759), of Vauxhall, Surr. and Fornham St. Genevieve, Suff.

Kent, a wealthy wholesale malt distiller with interests in the South Sea Company and the Sun Fire Office, was invited to stand for Ipswich in January 1730, but declined.Suff. Notes from 1729, reprinted from Ipswich Jnl. 24 Jan. 1730, p. 74. He appears to have had no estates in Suffolk until he purchased Fornham St. Genevieve in 1731. He topped the poll in 1734, was successful in 1741 and was returned unopposed in 1747. Kent, wrote Egmont in 1750, ‘always votes dead with the Court and has done so as long as I can remember’.

He died 8 Oct. 1759.