WILLOUGHBY, Edward (1676-1713)

Edward Willoughby’s father, Francis, was the younger brother of Hugh Willoughby, 11th (CP 12th) Baron Willoughby of Parham, and a yeoman farmer with a tenancy at Willoughby Farm, Haigh, in Lancashire. For our revision to the numbering of the Barons Willoughby of Parham given in the Complete Peerage, see vol. 1, appendix. This biography is based on P.J.W. Higson, ‘The 13th and 14th Lords Willoughby of Parham: Typical and Untypical Members of a Dissenting family’, Trans. Hist. Soc. of Lancs. and Cheshire, cli. 151–61, and P.J.W. Higson, ‘A Dissenting Northern Family: the Lancashire Branch of the Willoughbys of Parham, 1640–1765’, NH, vii. 31–53. Francis followed his father and brother in supporting the Revolution and promoting nonconformist chapels and schools, serving as a governor of both Rivington and Blackrod schools. Genealogists’ Mag. xvii. 5. Francis’s second son, Edward (who may have been educated at one of those schools), served in the Flanders army of John Churchill, duke of Marlborough, as a ‘private gentleman’, a ‘simple soldat’ or ‘fantassin’, as l’Hermitage and Bonet each dubbed him when he eventually took his seat in the House. Add. ms 17677 GGG, ff. 229–30; DZA, Merseburg, Bonet’s despatches, f. 160, for 23 June 1713. He appears again in his home county in Mar. 1708 as a militia captain searching the houses of suspected papists at the time of the invasion scare and later that year was in receipt of payments for the militia. Rec. Soc. Lancs. and Cheshire, cx. 166; Trans. Hist. Soc. of Lancs. and Cheshire, cli. 155.

By May 1704, after the death of both his elder brother and his father, Edward found himself heir to his uncle Hugh Willoughby. He inherited the title from his childless uncle on 3 July 1712, just before Parliament was prorogued, and was quickly appointed a justice of the peace for Lancashire, though not initially to the quorum. He was closely linked to Sir Roger Bradshaigh^‡, the leading landowner at Haigh, Member for Wigan and a supporter of the administration of Robert Harley, earl of Oxford. Willoughby appears to have been with Bradshaigh in London by November 1712, for on 18 Nov. Bradshaigh wrote to George Kenyon^‡ that together with Willoughby he had recently had dinner with the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, William Berkeley, 4th Baron Berkeley of Stratton, when they had discussed Kenyon’s candidacy for the Wigan seat. Willoughby first sat in the House at the next opportunity available to him, on 13 Jan. 1713, a day of prorogation. He only attended the House two more times (on 3 and 17 Feb.), also prorogations, and failed to attend the next prorogation on 3 March.

The young and impoverished peer may have been targeted for recruitment to the Tories despite his whiggish family background. His close association with Bradshaigh suggests this, as does the royal warrant, dated 3 Mar. 1713, issued to pay Willoughby £400 as a ‘free gift and royal bounty’. CTB, xxvii. 137. By 21 Mar. he had left London. In a letter of that date Bradshaigh^‡ (still in London) inquired of Kenyon^‡ in Manchester what he thought of Willoughby ‘since his coming down’. He further added that the peer was in bad health and was not intending to live in Shaw Place, the family seat previously occupied by the preceding baron. HMC Kenyon, 450. The young peer did die from his ailment shortly thereafter, on 13 Apr., before he had been able to participate in any full parliamentary proceedings and with his government pension still unpaid.

Willoughby’s death on the day after his 37th birthday took people by surprise, not least himself, as he died with his estate in disarray. The consistory court of Chester awarded the administration of his goods and chattels – which was valued as worth only £64 2s. 9d. – to his principal creditor, both his mother and his younger brother Charles, who inherited the title as 13th (CP 14th) Baron Willoughby of Parham, having renounced their claims to it.