General Needham, the younger son of an immensely wealthy Anglo-Irish family, served in America and Flanders, but chiefly distinguished himself in command of the loyalist troops at the Battle of Arklow, at which his victory preserved Dublin from the rebels in 1798, and quashed the rebellion in the north. In 1806, reviving the abeyant family interest in the borough of Newry, he was returned after a contest against a pro-Catholic Whig. Though ‘inimical’ to Catholic relief, he wished to be regarded as a supporter of the Grenville ministry and to obtain the borough patronage from them. His requests were politely refused and the advent of the Portland ministry proved more congenial to Needham, who admitted he had ‘never voted with’ the Grenvilles on that account. Obtaining the patronage from the new viceroy, he supported successive administrations until he succeeded to his brother’s title in 1818.
Needham was not an active Member. His only known speech, 13 June 1816, was in justification of the dismissal of a pro-Catholic Newry magistrate. Although he lived at Datchet, near Windsor, evidence of his attendance is thin. He threatened to withhold his support when his requests for patronage were not met. The official reaction was that he asked for county as well as Newry patronage and that ‘no government is benefited by concessions so urged’.