LENNOX, Lord Arthur (1806-1864), of 5 Upper Portland Place, Mdx.

Lennox’s brother William recalled how the duke of Wellington, a family friend, ‘took ... [him] by the hand and forwarded his military career’, which was nevertheless an unremarkable one. Lord W.P. Lennox, My Recollections, ii. 37. In April 1831 his elder brother the 5th duke of Richmond, who had joined Lord Grey’s ministry, expected him to be returned for Chichester after the passage of the government’s reform bill, but in the event a vacancy occurred immediately. He promised Richmond that ‘when I am in Parliament I will do my best to meet your approbation and that of my constituents’. The family interest in the city and their recent conversion to the cause of reform ensured that he was comfortably returned at the head of the poll. W. Suss. RO, Goodwood mss 1433, f. 113; 1486, f. 28.

He made no reported contribution to debate in this period. He divided for the second reading of the reintroduced reform bill, 6 July, and steadily for most of its details, though he joined his brother George in the minority for the total disfranchisement of Aldborough, 14 Sept. 1831. He voted for the bill’s passage, 21 Sept., the second reading of the Scottish bill, 23 Sept., and Lord Ebrington’s confidence motion, 10 Oct. He divided against the motion censuring the Irish administration for using undue influence at the Dublin election, 23 Aug. On 10 Nov. he asked Richmond to divulge when Parliament was due to reassemble so that he might assess the feasibility of a trip to Islay, the Scottish seat of his future wife’s family. He apparently delayed the visit and voted for the second reading of the revised reform bill, 17 Dec. 1831, before requesting that his mail be forwarded north. Ibid. 1451, f. 416; 1497, f. 101. He had returned by early February 1832 to vote for the bill’s details, and he obeyed Richmond’s specific instruction to attend the division on the 28th for the enfranchisement of Tower Hamlets. Ibid. 1455, f. 543. He divided for the third reading, 22 Mar., and Ebrington’s motion for an address asking the king to appoint only ministers committed to carrying an unimpaired measure, 10 May, paired for the second reading of the Irish bill, 25 May, and voted against increased representation for Scotland, 1 June. He divided with the minority, chiefly composed of Scottish Members, against the malt drawback bill, 2 Apr. He joined his brothers in the majority for the Liverpool franchise bill, 23 May, and in the minority next day for the immediate abolition of slavery; the latter vote apparently displeased Richmond. Ibid. 1489, f. 118. He divided with ministers on the Russian-Dutch loan, 12, 16, 20 July 1832.

At the general election of 1832 Lennox was again returned for Chichester, but his frequent absences in Scotland caused some annoyance to his supporters in the years that followed. Lord William Pitt Lennox expressed surprise that his youngest brother’s ‘poverty’ did not spur Richmond to find him a place in the Whig ministry. He eventually followed Richmond over to the Conservatives and held junior office in Peel’s second ministry, but he was obliged to resign his seat in 1846 owing to his support for repeal of the corn laws. D.A. Smith, ‘The Richmond Interest and Party Politics, 1834-41’, Suss. Arch. Colls. cxvii. (1979), 205, 208-9; Goodwood mss 1455, f. 545; Dod’s Parl. Companion (1847), 196. He was elected the following year for Great Yarmouth, only to be unseated for bribery. He died in January 1864.