OSBALDESTON, William (1688-1766), of Hunmanby, nr. Scarborough, Yorks.

Osbaldeston was a Whig country gentleman, a steady supporter of Walpole and the Pelhams, but independent of them and not playing for office. In 1761 Newcastle, faced with applications for Treasury support at Scarborough, refused to decide until he had consulted Osbaldeston: ‘I hope Osbaldeston is safe’, he wrote to Rockingham, 29 Sept. 1760, ‘or otherwise no consideration should make me take any part but his.’ And Rockingham, through whom Newcastle sent Osbaldeston the whip, wrote on 30 Oct. 1761: ‘I know his steadiness to old principles and connexions.’Add. 32912, ff. 223-4; 32930, f. 192. To his principles but not his connexions: he remained with the court under George III, appears in Fox’s list of Members favourable to the peace preliminaries, and did not follow Newcastle and Rockingham into opposition to Grenville. Still, in July 1765 Rockingham classed him as ‘pro’, and he did not vote against the repeal of the Stamp Act. He is not known to have spoken in the House. He died 5 Sept. 1766.