ASHBURNHAM, Hon. George (1785-1813), of Ashburnham Place, Battle, Suss.

Ashburnham’s father was summoned to the Lords, 23 Mar. 1803, in the barony of his own father, whom he succeeded in the earldom, 8 Apr. 1812. According to his schoolmaster, Ashburnham possessed the same ‘bilious and irritable’ constitution as his father, but lacked his ‘mental ability’.Farington, iv. 7.

Returned for New Romney on the Dering interest in 1807, probably by purchase, he supported the Portland ministry and voted with the Perceval government in most of the divisions for which lists of ministerial voters have been found. Robert Ward named him among government supporters who stayed away from the division on the sinecure paymastership, 24 Feb. 1812, ‘from sheer ignorance’ that their presence was necessary, but he appears on the government side in the published division list.Phipps, Plumer Ward Mems. i. 432. He was in the ministerial minority against a remodelling of the administration, 21 May 1812, but on 1 July voted against the grant for the erection of penitentiary houses. As he inherited a full share of the ‘habitual taciturnity’ of his male ancestors, it is not surprising to find that he apparently remained silent in the House.Farington, vii. 116.

In 1809 the Duke of Richmond mentioned Ashburnham as a suitable candidate for Sussex, and on 21 Sept. 1812 Lord Liverpool strongly urged his father to put him forward for the county at the forthcoming general election.NLI, Richmond mss 69/1254; Add. 38328, f. 41b. Nothing came of this, but his uncle Thomas Thynne, and Marquess of Bath, returned him for his pocket borough of Weobley. Listed among Members expected to support government, he secured six weeks’ leave of absence because of ill health, 22 Feb.,CJ, lxviii. 194. and died 7 June 1813.