BAYNTUN ROLT, Edward (1710-1800), of Spye Park, nr. Chippenham, Wilts.

Bayntun Rolt succeeded to an estate of nearly £3,000 p.a., carrying a major interest at Chippenham. Returned at a by-election in 1737 he joined the Whig Opposition, voting against the Government on the Spanish convention in 1739. He was re-elected in 1741 with another opposition candidate, Sir Edmund Thomas, against two government candidates, whose petition was treated as a trial of strength between Walpole and his opponents. When on 28 Jan. 1742 a minor point in connexion with it was carried against the Government by one vote, both sides accepted it as decisive.Owen, Pelhams, 33. On 31 Jan. Walpole decided to resign, announcing his decision to several Members when the final determination of the petition was carried against him by 16 votes on 2 Feb. On Bayntun Rolt’s authority, Coxe writes:

While the tellers were performing their office, [Sir Robert] beckoned Sir Edward Bayntun ... to sit near him, spoke to him with great complacency, animadverted on the ingratitude of several individuals who were voting against him, on whom he had conferred great favours, and declared he should never again sit in that House.Coxe, Walpole, i. 695.

After Walpole’s fall, Bayntun Rolt voted with the Government. Mentioned as a possible lord of Trade in November 1743,Sir Robt. Wilmot to Devonshire, 22 Nov. 1743, Devonshire mss. he became a groom of the bedchamber to the Prince in 1745 but was dismissed in March 1746 for following Granville’s friends by voting with the Government on supply.HMC Egmont Diary, iii. 315. At the 1747 election he had a secret service grant of £800 towards his expenses.Add. 32995, f. 120. The 2nd Earl of Egmont in his electoral survey c.1749-50, remarks: ‘Poor Bayntun Rolt will be with us till Granville bids him be against us’. After the Prince’s death in 1751, he was made surveyor general to the duchy of Cornwall at £466 p.a., retaining the post for forty-five years. He died 3 Jan. 1800.