Hanbury styled himself ‘of old Whig principles’ and as a ‘Liberal Conservative’, but was to all intents and purposes a loyal, if silent, supporter of the Conservative leadership throughout the 1850s and early 1860s.
Mrs D. presented her & launched her in society. She is a woman of ability sufficiently well-looking & has £8000 p[e]r ann[u]m. This month she marries Charles Hanbury, Bateman’s brother. Her first Husband was all Soul - her second all body. But I believe he is a good fellow, as well as good looking.
Benjamin Disraeli to Francis Villiers, 2 Oct. 1861, Benjamin Disraeli letters, eds. M. G. Wiebe et al (2009), viii. 142.
Hanbury’s father, William, MP for Northampton, 1810-18, had been created Baron Bateman by the Melbourne ministry in 1837 after inheriting the Bateman estates in Herefordshire.
Hanbury’s Conservatism and protectionism was confirmed by his voting pattern in the following session, when he divided with the Derbyites in favour of Disraeli’s budget, while opposing Villiers’ free trade motion and Gladstone’s budget, 26 Nov., 16 Dec. 1852, 2 May 1853. His Protestant sympathies were displayed by his support for Spooner’s anti-Maynooth motion and his opposition to Jewish relief. He followed Disraeli in condemning Aberdeen and then Palmerston’s handling of the Crimean war, 29 Jan., 25 May, 19 July 1855, and was in the opposition majority that defeated Palmerston over Cobden’s Canton motion, 3 Mar. 1857. He voted in 67 (26%) out of 257 divisions in 1852-3, but only 16 (8%) out of 198 in 1856.
Hanbury’s lacklustre parliamentary performance contributed to his defeat at the 1857 general election and his Canton vote did him few favours given Palmerston’s local popularity.
Hanbury denied that the opposition to Palmerston, whom he described as a ‘chameleon’, was factious at the nomination. In his view the ‘old party barriers’ had been ‘broken up. The moderate Whigs of old, are now the Liberal Conservatives and the Liberals are now thorough Liberals, and not moderate as of yore’. Such an interpretation of contemporary politics allowed Hanbury to reconcile his party allegiance with the traditional principles of his family. Captain Hanbury, as he was generally known, was publicly mocked by his Liberal opponent, who dismissed Hanbury’s military experience as limited to parades in royal parks.
Hanbury re-entered the House in October 1858 after being returned unopposed for Leominster, which was near his brother’s seat, Shobdon Court. Stating his belief that ‘every man is more or less liberal in his ideas’, Hanbury denied that the Liberal party had a monopoly on progressive measures, and indeed quipped that Palmerston was a ‘Liberal out of office and a Conservative in office’.
Hanbury continued to vote with the Conservative leadership on all key party divisions during the early 1860s, and despite his progressive rhetoric on the hustings consistently opposed the various reform bills proposed by Liberal backbenchers. He does not appear to have spoken and the ‘Mr. Hanbury’ who served on the select committees on public institutions (1860), education of destitute children (1861) and open spaces (1865) was almost certainly Robert Hanbury, MP for Middlesex, 1857-67.
Hanbury-Kincaid-Lennox retired at the 1865 general election, and unsuccessfully contested Leominster in 1875, but otherwise made no attempt to return to the House. He lived until 1912 and at his death without issue his personal estate of £15,065 passed to his second wife Rosa.