AUBREY, Sir John, 6th bt. (1739-1826), of Dorton, Bucks. and Llantriddyd, Glam

Aubrey, a parliamentary relic from the days of Wilkes, began his fifty-second consecutive year as a Member in 1820 when, at the age of 80, he was returned for Horsham by the 12th duke of Norfolk. It was later said of him that he ‘thought ... he could not spend £1,000 a year more pleasantly than in buying a borough and sitting in Parliament’. G. Pryme, Autobiog. Recollections, 179. He continued to act with his Whig friends, as he had since deserting Pitt (who had refused him the peerage he had once coveted) over the regency in 1789. However, age and infirmity increasingly restricted his appearances in the House, and he is not known to have spoken in debate in this period. He divided against Lord Liverpool’s ministry on the civil list, 5, 8 May, the additional baron of exchequer in Scotland, 15 May, Anglo-Irish trade and the standing army, 14 June, and the barrack agreement bill, 17 July 1820. He voted against the preliminary proceedings against Queen Caroline, 22, 26 June 1820, and to condemn the omission of her name from the liturgy, 26 Jan., 13 Feb., pairing for the motion censuring ministers’ conduct towards her, 6 Feb. 1821. He also paired for Mackintosh’s motion criticizing the government’s attitude towards the Holy Alliance’s suppression of liberalism in Naples, 21 Feb., and the forgery punishment mitigation bill, 23 May. He voted for inquiry into the administration of justice in Tobago, 6 June 1821. He was prevented by illness from attending to support parliamentary reform, 25 Apr., The Times, 4 May 1822. but he voted to receive the Greenhoe reform petition, 3 June, and paired for Brougham’s motion condemning the increased influence of the crown, 24 June 1822. He was in the minorities on diplomatic expenditure, 15 May, and Hume’s proposal to pay military and naval pensions from the sinking fund, 3 June 1822. Next day he divided for criminal law reform. His last known votes were for inquiry into the system of naval promotions, 19 June, and for the Scottish juries bill, 20 June 1823. He gave no recorded votes on the question of Catholic claims, which he had supported before 1820. He was granted periods of leave owing to ill health, 17 Feb., 29 Mar. 1825. He died father of the House in March 1826. Ex. inf. Sir John Aubrey-Fletcher, correcting the error in CB, iii. 95. See also Add. 51833, Blount to Holland, 2 Mar. 1826. His only son having died from accidental poisoning in 1777, his baronetcy and entailed estates passed to his nephew Thomas Digby Aubrey (1782-1856), on whose death the title became extinct. He bequeathed most of his unentailed property to his niece Elizabeth, wife of Charles Spencer Ricketts, and her issue in tail male, and left 100 guineas to his illegitimate daughter Mary, who had married Sir Samuel Whitcombe of Hempstead Court, Gloucestershire; his personalty was sworn under £50,000. PROB 11/1710/192; IR26/1072/256; G. Lipscomb, Bucks. i. 73, 75, 133.