RUDGE, Edward (1703-63), of Evesham Abbey, Worcs.

Rudge’s sister married Sir William Stanhope, on whose interest he was returned as a Whig for Aylesbury in 1728, voting against the Government except on the repeal of the Septennial Act, when he was absent. He did not stand in 1734. Returned unopposed for his father’s former seat at Evesham in 1741, he unexpectedly voted with the Government on the Bossiney election petition,Coxe, Walpole, iii. 582. but reverted to opposition on the chairman of the elections committee and was not included in the Cockpit list of October 1742. For the rest of this Parliament he voted with the Government, classed in 1746 among Lord Bath’s followers.

At the opening of the 1747 Parliament Rudge was classed as Opposition, but in 1753 he was described by his fellow Member for Evesham, Sir John Rushout, as one who had ‘not much attended Parliament, always voted with the Government, and is now making interest for the Whig candidates in Oxfordshire’.Sir Dudley Ryder’s diary, 13 Sept. 1753, Harrowby mss. He died 6 June 1763.