TOLLEMACHE, Lionel William John (1794-1878), of 1 Hyde Park Place, Mdx.

Tollemache, who was ‘strikingly handsome as a young man’, E. Tollemache, Tollemaches of Helmingham and Ham, 128. stood unsuccessfully in 1818 and 1820 at Ilchester, where his father’s control had been broken by the Whig Lord Darlington. He was similarly unfortunate in contesting the by-election at Grantham, 21 July 1820, which arose from a petition after the general election when his brother Felix had been the defeated candidate. Western Flying Post, 13 Mar.; Drakard’s Stamford News, 21 July 1820. In 1826 he and Felix were defeated at Ilchester but they were subsequently seated on petition. Western Flying Post, 12 June 1826; The Times, 23 Feb. 1827.

He was a very inactive Member, who is not known to have spoken in debate, and few votes can definitely be attributed to him rather than his brothers. The ‘J. Talmash’ whose name appeared in several division lists was more likely to have been Frederick James. He was presumably the ‘B.L. Talmash’ who voted to go into committee on the Clarence annuity bill, 16 Mar. 1827. He voted with the duke of Wellington’s ministry against inquiry into delays in chancery, 24 Apr. 1828. He divided against Catholic claims, 12 May. One of the brothers voted against reducing the salary of the lieutenant-general of the ordnance, 4 July, and for the corporate funds bill, 10 July, and the customs bill, 14 July 1828. In February 1829 Planta, the patronage secretary, predicted that he would side ‘with government’ on Catholic emancipation, and he apparently voted for the third reading of the relief bill, 30 Mar., although according to the Mirror of Parliament he paired against the second reading, 18 Mar. 1829, and for the third. He may have divided against Jewish emancipation, 5 Apr., and to abolish the death penalty for forgery, 24 May, but he definitely voted against the Galway franchise bill, 25 May 1830.

He retired from Parliament at the 1830 dissolution. In 1833 he succeeded to his father’s baronetcy and landed estates in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Somerset. The will was sworn under £40,000 (PROB 11/1815/257; IR26/1323/173). On his grandmother’s death in 1840 he succeeded to the earldom of Dysart and inherited her estate in Surrey. The will was sworn under £140,000, but the residuary legatee was his younger bro. Algernon (PROB 8/234/; 11/1940/94). He had declined the duke of Rutland’s offer in 1836 to put his name forward as a justice of the peace for Leicestershire, explaining that ‘I lead so retired a life’ that ‘I fear I should on no occasions be induced to devote any of my time to magisterial duties - indeed nothing short of civil commotion would induce me to take a different course’. Tollemache (Dysart) mss 3571. In his later years he gained a reputation as a miser and a hermit, and finally ‘he would see no one’, confining himself to one room of his London residence, where ‘his meals were handed to him through a trapdoor’. Tollemache, 128. He died in September 1878 and was succeeded by his grandson, William Tollemache (1859-1935).