MONCKTON, William, 2nd Visct. Galway [I] (?1725-1772).

The Galway family controlled one seat at Pontefract. Lord Galway supported the Administration till November 1762 when Newcastle went into opposition. During the 1754 Parliament he successfully applied for promotion for his brother Robert, but failed to obtain for himself the office of postmaster general, about which he wrote to Newcastle, 17 Nov. 1758.Add. 32885, f. 381.In Bute’s list of December 1761 Galway was classed as ‘Newcastle, Government’. He voted with Opposition on the motion to postpone consideration of the peace preliminaries, 1 Dec. 1762, but does not appear in the minority which voted against the preliminaries, 9 and 10 Dec., nor did he resign his office as Newcastle hoped he would.Add. 32950, f. 237. Nevertheless, he was classed by Jenkinson in the autumn of 1763 as ‘contra’; voted with Opposition on general warrants, 6, 15 and 18 Feb. 1764, and was listed by Newcastle, 10 May 1764, as a ‘sure friend’. Rockingham, July 1765, classed him as ‘pro’, and he appointed him master of the stag-hounds; but Galway was classed by Townshend, January 1767, as ‘Government’ and he voted with Administration on the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767. He voted with Opposition on Wilkes’s petition, 27 Jan, 1769, and appears in North’s list of the Opposition on Wilkes’s libel, 2 Feb. 1769, but with a query against his name.Fortescue, ii. 77. No other votes by him are recorded during this Parliament, but he is classed in Robinson’s first survey on the royal marriage bill as ‘contra, present’, and in the second as ‘contra, sick, present’. Apparently he never spoke in the House.

Galway died 18 Nov. 1772.