BOND, John (1802-1844), of Creech Grange, Dorset

Bond, who came from a long-established Dorset parliamentary family, followed his father, grandfather and great-grandfather, all namesakes, as Member for Corfe Castle, where the family traditionally controlled one seat. J. Hutchins, Dorset, i (1861), 463-4, 602-3; T. Bond, Ped. of Fam. of Bond (1858); Dorset RO, Bond mss D53/1. Having presumably attended Winchester in the 1810s, Winchester Commoners, 1800-1835 ed. C.W. Holgate, 4. he took his MA at Oxford in 1822. On 3 Dec. 1821 Joseph Jekyll† wrote to Nathaniel Bond, another former Member for Corfe Castle, that ‘your nephew I like extremely. He has cleverness, prudence, and good breeding. What more need a young man possess?’ Bond mss D/BOH C16. Soon after Bond came of age, George Bankes, the locum, vacated Corfe Castle to provide him with a seat. Writing (on 15 Feb. 1823) to arrange the date of the election with Henry Bankes, George’s father and the patron and occupant of the other seat, Bond’s father added that ‘I am much obliged to you for your very kind and friendly invitation to my son, which I trust he will accept. It will be of great benefit to him, as he is naturally shy where he is not perfectly acquainted’. Dorset RO, Bankes mss D/BKL. After his father’s death in May 1824, Bond succeeded to Grange, as it was usually called, and the rest of his estate, which included personal wealth sworn under £30,000. PROB 11/1689/453; IR26/990/860.

In the Commons, where he made no reported speeches, Bond was an inactive supporter of the Liverpool administration. Session of Parl. 1825, p. 452. He voted against repeal of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 16 Apr., inquiry into the legal proceedings against the Dublin Orange rioters, 22 Apr., reform of the Scottish representative system, 2 June, and inquiry into chancery administration, 5 June 1823. He was listed as having sided with opposition to abolish flogging in the army, 15 Mar., and for repeal of the assessed taxes, 10 May 1824. He divided against the Catholic relief bill, 21 Apr., 10 May, and the Irish franchise bill, 26 Apr. 1825. He signed the requisition for a meeting of landowners opposed to any alteration of the corn laws, and attended it in Blandford on 9 Jan. 1826, when he was appointed one of the vice-presidents of the Dorset Agricultural Association. He was present at the dinner following the return of Henry Bankes for Dorset at a by-election in February. Dorset Co. Chron. 29 Dec. 1825, 12 Jan., 23 Feb. 1826. He voted against the second reading of the corn importation bill, 11 May 1826. He was returned unopposed at the general election that year, and his last known vote was against Catholic relief, 6 Mar. 1827. He was appointed chairman of the protracted committee on the Westmeath election, 29 Mar. 1827, although he did not report its proceedings to the House.

He informed Henry Bankes, 12 Dec. 1827, that, although still undecided, he was considering leaving the Commons immediately, ‘as I cannot look with any degree of patience at a prospect of a second edition of the Westmeath committee’. Bankes mss. He duly asked George Bankes, who had replaced his father at Corfe Castle, to move the writ at the start of the ensuing session. Add. 40395, f. 44. At the subsequent by-election, 8 Feb. 1828, when he explained that he was not able to attend Parliament as constantly as the situation of the country required, but hinted at a possible future return, he introduced Nathaniel Peach as a supporter of the Wellington administration. Dorset Co. Chron. 14 Feb. 1828. When Peach transferred to Truro the following year, Bond presumably approved his replacement by the like-minded Philip Miles. As sheriff, Bond oversaw the uncontested return of Edward Portman and Henry Bankes for Dorset at the general election of 1830. After the dissolution in early 1831, he signed the requisition to Henry Bankes to stand against the reformers Portman and John Calcraft*, and duly plumped for him. He voted for the anti-reformer Lord Ashley* at the Dorset by-election that autumn, and was present at the Dorchester dinner in honour of Henry Bankes, 26 July 1832. Ibid. 12 Aug. 1830, 5 May 1831, 2 Aug. 1832; Dorset Pollbook (1831), 58; (Sept.-Oct. 1831), 85. ‘A man of the strictest integrity and uprightness of character’, he died in March 1844, leaving his estate to his only brother Nathaniel (1804-89), rector of Steeple-with-Tyneham and prebendary of Salisbury, whose fourth son, George Hawkesworth Bond of Holme Priory (1845-91), was Conservative Member for Dorset East, 1886-91. Western Flying Post, 21 Mar. 1844; Gent. Mag. (1844), i. 554; Bond mss D53/1, ff. 46-47.