In November 1832, after six years as the representative of Mallow, Jephson was said to stand ‘at an equal distance from the two leading extremes into which Irish politicians are unhappily divided’. Having decisively rejected repeal in 1830, he attended a meeting of the Munster-Leinster Declarationists, who instead embraced reform of the Union and sought to establish ‘a moderate party’ in county Cork.
In resuming what was to prove a very active parliamentary career, particularly with respect to select committee service, Jephson supported the Whig ministry in 1833-5 and was sincerely committed to reform, voting for the removal of Jewish disabilities, and supporting the right of parliament to dispose of surplus money arising from the sale of bishops’ lands, yet opposing a revision of pension list, and the abolition of impressment. Convinced that Ireland’s interests were intimately bound to those of England, he divided against repeal, but warned that if the agitation continued unchecked for a further year, he would join the repealers rather than live under a government ‘which could not maintain peace and law in the country’.
Jephson was rewarded with a baronetcy at the coronation promotion, 30 June 1838, which he accepted only after some hesitation. That year he also assumed the additional surname of Norreys ‘to mark his descent and inheritance of the Mallow estate from Sir Thomas Norreys’.
Throughout the 1830s Jephson served on select committees concerning communications and infrastructure, and displayed an abiding interest in science and technology.
An interest in architecture was manifested in Jephson’s designs for the Elizabethan-style mansion he began on his estate at Mallow, before financial constraints curtailed the work in 1836.
Jephson Norreys’s chief political interest in this period was, however, electoral reform. He had supported a wide extension of the franchise in 1832, and frequently advocated the ballot, arguing that, rather than destroying patrician influence, it ‘would afford protection to the landlord and the electors in his interest against any system of intimidation’. In August 1835 he called for the registries to ‘be purified’, and introduced a bill in 1837 for improving the polling of county electors in Ireland.
In 1840 Jephson Norreys was publicly rebuked by John Dillon Croker, a local ‘Tory’ and an erstwhile backer, for ‘avowing himself partial to a change in the corn-laws’. Having seen off a Conservative challenge at Mallow in 1841, he voted against their abolition during 1842-5, before finally dividing for repeal in 1846.
By the end of 1845, however, the popular party in Mallow were dissatisfied with Jephson Norreys and resolved to ‘fling him off’ at the next election.
Having gained the reputation as ‘a most independent and upright public man, with very fair talents for business’, he was active during 1847-9 on yet more select committees.
In the early 1850s Jephson Norreys experienced increasing difficulty in obtaining his rents, and so opposed the Irish valuation bill of 1851.
In spite of the deaths of his wife in December 1853, his mother in May 1854, and his barrister son John Aubrey in September 1856, Jephson Norreys lost none of his appetite for parliamentary work.
During 1857-8 Jephson Norreys spoke frequently on questions of supply and the army and civil service estimates, pressing Palmerston for an inquiry into the manner in which the estimates were examined.
Instead Jephson Norrey, regarded by the people of Mallow as the embodiment of ‘the old-world haute noblesse’, turned his attention to his estate and his interest in archaeology.