RUDGE, Edward (1703-63), of Evesham, Worcs. and Wheatfield, Oxon.

Edward Rudge’s grandfather, having made a fortune as a London merchant, purchased the manor of Evesham and both he and his son represented the borough in Parliament.

In September 1753 Sir Dudley Ryder described Rudge as ‘one who though he had not much attended Parliament always voted with Government’.Ryder’s ‘Debates’, 13 Sept. 1753, Harrowby mss. But at the general election of 1754 Administration supported John Porter in opposition to him. On 26 Mar. Rudge published an advertisement in the Glocester Journal:

The property I have in Evesham enables me to presume that I have a natural interest in the borough. Experience has shown me that I have many friends there. My interest I will never abandon; my friends I will never desert.

Lord Coventry, who tried to arrange for Porter to withdraw, told Newcastle that ‘Mr. Rudge would behave equally well in Parliament’.Add. 32955, f. 104. Rudge is said to have spent ‘the greatest profusion of money’ on the contest,Glocester Jnl. 23 Apr. 1754. but was heavily defeated. He was returned in 1756 after another contest, and did not stand in 1761.

He died 6 June 1763.