Sir Hervey Elwes, 2nd Baronet (c. 1683–1763), of

Stoke-by-Clare Stoke-by-Clare is a small village and civil parish in Suffolk located in the valley of the River Stour, about two miles west of Clare. In 1124 Richard de Clare, 1st Earl of Hertford, moved the Benedictine Priory that had been established at h ...

, Suffolk, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the

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and

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between 1706 and 1722. He had the reputation of being an extreme miser.

Early life

Elwes was baptized in July 1683, the eldest son of

Gervase Elwes Gervase Henry Cary-Elwes, DL (15 November 1866 – 12 January 1921), better known as Gervase Elwes, was an English tenor of great distinction, who exercised a powerful influence over the development of English music from the early 1900s up un ...

Stoke College Stoke College in Stoke-by-Clare, near Haverhill, Suffolk, England, is a co-educational day school for children aged 11 to 18, with boarding for children aged 11 to 18. It is built on the site of a major medieval monastic college. History of t ...

and his wife Isabella Hervey, daughter of Sir Thomas Hervey of

Ickworth Ickworth is a small civil parish, almost coextensive with the estate of the National Trust's Ickworth House, in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, eastern England, south-west of Bury St Edmunds. The population of the parish was only minimal a ...

, Suffolk. His father died in about 1687. As a child, he suffered from consumption so that he had a poor constitution and a thin spare body. He was timid, and extremely diffident, had no friends and no interests apart from hoarding up his money and partridge setting. He was admitted at

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on 22 June 1702. His grandfather

Sir Gervase Elwes, 1st Baronet Sir Gervase Elwes, 1st Baronet (bapt. 21 August 1628 – 11 April 1706) was an English Court Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1677 and 1706. Elwes was the son of Sir Gervase Elwes, of Woodford, Essex and ...

died on 11 April 1706 and he succeeded to the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

and estate. The estate was so debt-ridden that his uncle,

John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol (27 August 1665 – 20 January 1751) was an English politician. John Hervey was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, the son of Sir Thomas Hervey. He was educated in Bury and at Clare College, Cambridge. He ...

, advised him either to sell his lands or marry a rich wife. In the event he never married nor sold the estates but lived a life of abject penury.

Political career

Elwes was a loyal Whig, and succeeded to his grandfather's parliamentary seat. He was returned as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

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at a by-election on 16 December 1706. He became a Freeman, of Sudbury in 1706. His uncle tried unsuccessfully in 1707 to get him a grant of his grandfather's office under the duchy of Lancaster. He was re-elected at the

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and voted for Dr Sacheverell's impeachment in 1710. He was defeated at Sudbury in the 1710 election, but was returned unopposed in

1713 Events January–March * January 17 – Tuscarora War: Colonel James Moore leads the Carolina militia out of Albemarle County, North Carolina, in a second offensive against the Tuscarora. Heavy snows force the troops to take ref ...

. He voted in 1714 against the expulsion of Richard Steele. He was returned unopposed again as MP for Sudbury at the

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but withdrew from politics in

1722 Events January–March * January 27 – Daniel Defoe's novel ''Moll Flanders'' is published anonymously in London. * February 10 – The Battle of Cape Lopez begins off of the coast of West Africa (and present-day Gabon), as ...

Later life and legacy

Elwes spent the next forty years of his life restoring his fortune by exercising severe economy. Much of the time he spent alone at Stoke, and was described as 'perhaps the most perfect picture of human penury that ever existed'. He died unmarried on 22 October 1763, aged about 80. He left at least a quarter of a million to his nephew, John Meggott, who took the name Elwes, and modelling his way of life on his uncle's, became as famous a miser. The baronetcy passed to a cousin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elwes, Sir Hervey, 2nd Baronet 1683 births 1763 deaths British MPs 1708–1710 British MPs 1713–1715 British MPs 1715–1722 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Baronets in the Baronetage of England Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge