BOONE, Daniel (1710-70), of Rook’s Nest, in Tandridge, and Godstone, Surr.

Contrary to the expectations of the ministry, Boone, on succeeding his father at Ludgershall, voted with the Opposition on the Address at the opening of the new Parliament.HMC Carlisle, 147. Continuing to oppose the Administration till Walpole’s fall, he spoke against the Spanish convention, 8 Mar. 1739, with George Lyttelton, Richard Grenville and William Pitt, described as ‘three or four young gentlemen who took great personal liberties’. Shortly before the opening of the next Parliament he was said to have gained ‘a reputation from two speeches which he did not make himself’, i.e. which were composed for him.Coxe, Walpole, iii. 516-17; Horace Walpole to Ld. Lincoln, 13 Oct. 1741 (Yale ed.). In 1741 he joined Lord Perceval in canvassing Haslemere, but eventually gave upHMC Egmont Diary, iii. 190-1, 194, 262. to be brought in for Grampound on the recommendation of the Prince of Wales.Hawkins to Ayscough, 8 Nov. 1747, Hawkins mss, R. Inst. of Cornw.; Ld. John Sackville to Bedford, 11 June 1741, Bedford mss. Obtaining office after Walpole’s fall, he voted with the Administration on the Hanoverians in 1742 and 1744. When he was dismissed from his post after Granville’s abortive attempt to form a ministry in February 1746, the Prince softened the blow by making him a groom of his bedchamber. Following his patron’s lead, he reverted to opposition early in 1747. He was included in a list of persons to be brought into Parliament by the Prince, drawn up in June 1747, when he was reported to be ‘loudly called for’ at Stockbridge, for which he was duly returned.HMC Fortescue, i. 108, 113. In Egmont’s list of future office holders on Frederick’s accession he figures as muster master, or deputy, and groom of the bedchamber. When the Prince died in 1751, Boone was given a place in the household of the Princess dowager, thenceforth supporting the Administration. In 1754 he was successful at Minehead on the interest of Lord Egremont but thereafter took little place in politics, perhaps because of ill-health. He died 20 May 1770.