ONSLOW, Richard (c.1697-1760).

Richard Onslow was left by his parents’ deaths in the charge of his elder brother, Arthur, the future Speaker, who, thinking him cut out for the army by ‘a courage and firmness in him’, combined with ‘a large and fine make in his person, and ... a very handsome and manly countenance’, gave him a start in life by raising the money to buy him a company in the Guards.HMC 14th Rep. IX, 501-2. In 1720 Arthur, on entering Parliament, turned over to Richard a £400 a year place in the Post Office, which was incompatible with a seat in the Commons. In 1722 Richard figured in an election brawl with James Oglethorpe at Haslemere, where the Onslows had an interest.A. A. Ettinger, Oglethorpe, 81-82. Returned on his family’s interest at Guildford in 1727, he had to resign his Post Office place, obtaining another in 1734 under his brother as treasurer of the navy, which he held till Arthur Onslow resigned that place in 1742. Voting steadily with the Government, marrying two heiresses, and backed by the Onslow influence, he rose steadily to a high rank in the army. He died 16 Mar. 1760. Presumably as a compliment to his brother, the Speaker, Sir James Thornhill’s picture of the House of Commons, c.1730, contains a portrait of him by by Thornhill’s son-in-law, Hogarth.