William Hay (1695–1755), of
Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hun ...
, Sussex was an English writer and Whig 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. T ...
from 1734 to 1755.
Early life
Hay was born on 21 August 1695, the second but on[y surviving son of William Hay of
Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne () is an English country house, the site of an opera house that, since 1934, has been the venue for the annual Glyndebourne Festival Opera. The house, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England, is thought to be about six hun ...
, Sussex, and his wife, Barbara Stapley, youngest daughter of Sir John Stapley, Bt. of Patcham, Sussex.
He was born with a physical disability affecting his back which rendered him bent and "scarce five feet high". Both his parents died while he was still an infant. In 1705 he was sent to school at
Newick
Newick is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located on the A272 road east of Haywards Heath.
The parish church, St. Mary's, dates mainly from the Victorian era, but still has a N ...
, and then in 1710 to the grammar school at
Lewes.
He matriculated at
Christ Church, Oxford, on 20 March 1712.
Leaving university without a degree, Hay was admitted in 1715 to the
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...
but there is no evidence that he was
called to the bar. While pursuing his legal studies he contracted
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, which seriously affected his eyesight. In 1718 he travelled through many parts of England and Scotland, and in 1720 he made a tour through France, Germany, and Holland. On his return he settled down at Glyndebourne and became an active county magistrate, and in 1733 was appointed chairman of quarter sessions for the eastern division of Sussex.
Career
At a by-election in January 1734 Hay was returned to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for
Seaford, and continued to represent the constituency until his death. He was a Whig, and a general supporter of the policy of
Sir Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leade ...
.
[
In 1735 Hay headed a parliamentary committee that reported on ]prison reform
Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of a penal system, or implement alternatives to incarceration. It also focuses on ensuring the reinstatement of those whose lives are impacted by crimes ...
. In March 1736 and again in February 1737 he brought in a bill for poor relief
In English and British history, poor relief refers to government and ecclesiastical action to relieve poverty. Over the centuries, various authorities have needed to decide whose poverty deserves relief and also who should bear the cost of hel ...
, but failed to carry it through the house. In February 1738 he took part in the debate on the reduction of the army, and in May following was appointed a commissioner for victualling the navy. During the discussion of the navy estimates in February 1740 he defended himself from a personal attack, and invited scrutiny of his conduct at the victualling office. In December 1747 he brought in a bill for the relief of the poor by voluntary charities, which passed through the Commons without opposition, but was dropped in the House of Lords.[
Hay was appointed keeper of the records in the Tower of London in 1753, and died of ]apoplexy
Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...
at Glyndebourne on 22 June 1755. He was buried in Glynde
Glynde is a village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, United Kingdom. It is located two miles (5 km) east of Lewes.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton ...
churchyard. Hay suffered from severe scoliosis, scarcely five feet high, and assiduous in his parliamentary duties.
Family
In 1731 Hay had married Elizabeth, the second daughter of Thomas Pelham of Catsfield Place, Sussex, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. Pelham was a cousin of the Duke of Newcastle
Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne was a title that was created three times, once in the Peerage of England and twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The first grant of the title was made in 1665 to William Cavendish, 1st Marquess of Newcastle ...
, by whose influence Hay entered parliament.
The eldest son, Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
, lieutenant-colonel in the Queen's dragoons, represented Lewes from March 1768 to September 1780, and died on 9 February 1786. His second son, William, a member of the supreme council at Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
, was murdered while a hostage at Patna
Patna (
), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...
on 5 October 1763. His youngest son, Henry, died on 24 October 1754, aged 18.
None of his five children produced offspring and on the death in 1824 of Frances, the younger of his two daughters, Glyndebourne passed to his nephew, the Rev. Francis Tutté, son of his sister Barbara, and eventually to William Langham Christie.
Works
Hay was the author of:
* ''An Essay on Civil Government, treating summarily of its necessity, original, dissolution, forms, and properties'' (anonymous), London, 1728.
* ''Mount Caburn. A Poem humbly inscribed to her Grace the Dutchess of Newcastle'', London, 1730.
* ''Remarks on the Laws relating to the Poor; with Proposals for their better Relief and Employment. By a member of parliament. First published in 1735 … with an Appendix containing the Resolutions of the House of Commons on the same subject in 1735'', London, 1751.
* ''Religio Philosophi, or the Principles of Morality and Christianity, illustrated from a View of the Universe and of Man's Situation in it'', London, 1753; 2nd edit., London 1754; 3rd edit., London, 1760; new edit., 1831.
* ''Deformity; an Essay'', London, 1754; 2nd edit., London, 1754. Reprinted in vol. i. of Robert Dodsley
Robert Dodsley (13 February 1703 – 23 September 1764) was an English bookseller, publisher, poet, playwright, and miscellaneous writer.
Life
Dodsley was born near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father was master of the free school.
H ...
's ''Fugitive Pieces on Various Subjects by Several Authors'' in 1761, 1762, 1765, and 1771. This was Hay's reflection on his own life as a hunchback
Kyphosis is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can result ...
.
* ''The Immortality of the Soul'' London, 1754. This was a poem translated from the Latin ''De Animi Immortalitate'' (1754) of Isaac Hawkins Browne.
* ''Martialis Epigrammata Selecta. Anglicè reddidit Gulielmus Hay, appendicem sibi vendicant Couleius et alii'' (Latin and English), London, 1755; also with the English only.
Hay's collected works were published at the expense of his two daughters, under the editorship of their cousin, the Rev. Francis Tutté, in 1794, London, 2 vols. His parliamentary journal has been published.[Hayley.]
References
*Section ''William Hay, M.P. for Seaford (1695–1755)'' in
Notes
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, William
1695 births
1755 deaths
People educated at Lewes Old Grammar School
Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
English writers
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
British MPs 1734–1741
British MPs 1741–1747
British MPs 1747–1754
British MPs 1754–1761
People from Lewes District