HARPUR, Sir Henry, 6th Bt. (?1739-89), of Calke Abbey, Derbys.

Harpur came of an old and influential Derbyshire family with estates said to be worth £10,000 a year.Add. 6839, f. 273. In 1761 he was returned unopposed for the county and, in spite of his connexion with the Rutland family, as representative of the independent country gentlemen he was often counted as a Tory. He does not appear in Henry Fox’s list of Members favourable to the peace preliminaries, December 1762, but was classed as ‘pro’ by Jenkinson in the autumn of 1763, and is not included in any of the minority lists during the Bute and Grenville Administrations. Rockingham, July 1765, classed him as ‘contra’; he voted against the repeal of the Stamp Act, 22 Feb. 1766, and was listed as ‘Tory, Bute’ by Rockingham in November 1766, and as ‘Tory’ by Newcastle on 2 Mar. 1767. No other vote by him is known, and there is no record of his having spoken in the House.

In 1768 he again stood for Derbyshire, in opposition to Godfrey Bagnal Clarke, and was defeated after an expensive contest. In 1774 Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, reported to her mother that if Wenman Coke were returned for both Derby and Norfolk, Harpur would hold the seat at Derby till Thomas Coke was of age; but Coke was defeated, and Harpur did not stand again for Parliament.Spencer mss.

He died 10 Feb. 1789.