Captain Peregrine Francis Bertie (13 March 1741 – 20 August 1790) was a British naval officer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

from 1774 to 1790. The third son of

Willoughby Bertie, 3rd Earl of Abingdon Willoughby Bertie, 3rd Earl of Abingdon (28 November 1692 – 10 June 1760), of Wytham Abbey, Berkshire and Rycote, Oxfordshire, was an English landowner and Tory politician who sat briefly in the House of Commons in 1715. Early life Bertie was ...

, he was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

. Commissioned a lieutenant in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

on 17 December 1759, he was promoted commander on 1 January 1762 and given command of the

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...

HMS ''Despatch''. He was made a

post-captain Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) ...

on 6 November 1762 and commanded the fifth-rate ''Repulse'' until February 1763. He got another command, the frigate HMS ''Shannon'', that August, which he took to Africa and then the

Leeward Islands french: Îles-Sous-le-Vent , image_name = , image_caption = ''Political'' Leeward Islands. Clockwise: Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Saint kitts and Nevis. , image_alt = , locator_map = , location = Caribbean SeaNorth Atlantic Ocean , coor ...

before giving up command in 1764. In 1766, he inherited the Norreys estates, including Weston-on-the-Green,

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

and

Yattendon Yattendon is a small village and civil parish northeast of Newbury in the county of Berkshire. The M4 motorway passes through the fields of the village which lie south and below the elevations of its cluster. The village is privately owned and ...

Hampstead Norreys Hampstead Norreys (alternatively spelt ''Hampstead Norris'' as it is pronounced) is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It is centred on the small tributary the River Pang, north of Newbury. Amenities Hampstead Norreys was awarde ...

, and Bothampstead in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

, from his second cousin once removed,

Norreys Bertie Norreys Bertie (?1718 – 25 October 1766) was an English Tory politician. From a junior branch of the Bertie family which had inherited estates at Weston-on-the-Green in Oxfordshire, he represented that county in Parliament from 1743 until stan ...

. Bertie entered Parliament as MP for

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1774 on the interest of his brother, the 4th Earl of Abingdon. A Tory like the rest of the family, he was noted in 1780 as an opposition member who rarely attended Parliament. Lord Abingdon was a supporter of the

Shelburne Ministry This is a list of the principal holders of government office during the premiership of the Earl of Shelburne between July 1782 and April 1783. Upon the fall of the North ministry in March 1782, Whig Lord Rockingham became Prime Minister for a sec ...

, and made sure that Bertie was on hand to vote in support of the peace preliminaries to end the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

in February 1783. Bertie also went to sea again for the first time in almost twenty years: he briefly commanded HMS ''Fortitude'' in early 1783. When he inherited them in 1766, the Norreys estates were encumbered with an annuity to his sister Elizabeth, wife of

John Gallini Giovanni Andrea Battista Gallini (born Florence, Italy, 7 January 1728, died London, 5 January 1805), later known as Sir John Andrew Gallini, was an Italian dancer, choreographer and impresario who was made a "Knight of the Order of the Golden Sp ...

. In 1784, Gallini and Elizabeth bought the manors of Hampstead Norreys and Bothampstead from Peregrine, followed in 1785 by the adjacent manor of

. Bertie went to sea for the last time, commanding HMS ''Carnatic'',

guard ship A guard ship is a warship assigned as a stationary guard in a port or harbour, as opposed to a coastal patrol boat, which serves its protective role at sea. Royal Navy In the Royal Navy of the eighteenth century, peacetime guard ships were usual ...

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, from April 1786 to 1788. His one recorded speech in Parliament was in opposition to the government, in favor of

John Pollexfen Bastard John Pollexfen Bastard (18 September 1756 – 4 April 1816) was a British Tory politician, landowner and colonel of the East Devon Militia who was born and lived at Kitley House, Yealmpton, Devon. He married Sarah Wymondesold of East Lockinge, ...

's motion in 1788 on naval promotions. Despite voting against the

First Pitt the Younger ministry William Pitt the Younger led the government of the Kingdom of Great Britain from 1783 to 1801. In 1800, the Acts of Union between Great Britain and Ireland were accepted by their respective parliaments, creating the new United Kingdom of Great ...

over the

Regency Bill George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

in 1789, the Pittite Abingdon again returned Peregrine for Westbury in the 1790 election on 16 June 1790. He had just married (on 7 May) Elizabeth Hutchins, but they had no children, as he died on 20 August, before Parliament opened. He left his remaining estate at Weston-on-the-Green to his brother, Lord Abingdon, and made provision for one illegitimate daughter by his housekeeper.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertie, Peregrine 1741 births 1790 deaths British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 British MPs 1784–1790 British MPs 1790–1796 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies People educated at Westminster School, London Royal Navy officers Peregrine 18th-century Royal Navy personnel Younger sons of earls