KERRISON, Edward (1776-1853), of Oakley Park, Suff. and Wyke House, Brighton, Suss.

Of Kerrison’s father an obituary had this to say:

Born in an inferior station of life, and enjoying few of the advantages of education, Mr Kerrison had accumulated by trade, and good management, property of little less value than a million sterling, which is much of it invested in the fine estates of Lord Maynard and the Marq[uess] of Cornwallis. His own habits of life were of a very plain kind.Gent. Mag. (1827), i. 477.

Kerrison entered the army, serving in the Helder campaign in 1799. He proceeded to the Peninsula and was severely wounded at Leon in December 1808, but distinguished himself in the later stages of the war and at Waterloo.DNB.

In 1812 he stood for Shaftesbury on the interest of its new patron Robert Peter Dyneley.Geo. IV Letters, i. 330. He was defeated but came in on petition. He was listed a Treasury supporter. He took the opportunity to vote against the Catholic relief bill, 13 and 24 May 1813, before returning to the Peninsula. On 5 July 1814 he was in the House and testified to having seen Andrew Cochrane Johnstone at Calais on 21 June. He was with the army of occupation in Paris and did not again attend the House until the session of 1816. He then voted with ministers on the army estimates, 8 Mar., against them on the property tax, 18 Mar., and with them on the civil list, 6 May and (by pair) 20 June. He further voted against Catholic relief in 1816 and 1817. On 23 June 1817 he paired in favour of the suspension of habeas corpus. He was in the government minority in favour of the ducal marriage grant, 15 Apr. 1818.

He was successful in a contest at Northampton, where he found a fortuitous opening, in 1818, but inactive in the ensuing Parliament, taking leave of absence for ten days in March 1819 and pairing in favour of the excise duties bill, 18 June. He was out of the next Parliament until he purchased the borough of Eye.W. Suff. RO, Hervey mss, Liverpool to Bristol, 14 Aug. 1823. He died 9 Mar. 1853, having been ‘a consistent and zealous supporter of the Conservative cause’.Gent. Mag. (1853), i. 542.