Richard Arundell (died 1758)

The Honourable Richard Arundell (c. 1696 – 20 January 1758) was an English courtier administrator and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1720 to 1758.

Allerton Castle, Arundell's Yorkshire home

Arundell was the second son of John Arundell, 2nd Baron Arundell of Trerice and his second wife Barbara, the widow of Sir Richard Mauleverer, 4th Baronet, of Allerton Mauleverer, Yorkshire. He succeeded his mother to Allerton Mauleverer in 1721.

Arundell was a page to Queen Anne from 1707 to 1714. With the patronage of his friend the Earl of Burlington he was returned unopposed as Member of Parliament for Knaresborough at a by-election on 16 April 1720. He retained the seat unopposed until his death in 1758. In 1726 he was appointed Surveyor of the King's Works by Sir Robert Walpole, holding the post until 1737, when he accepted the more lucrative post of Master of the Mint (until 1744). He was also Surveyor of the King's Private Roads from 1731 to 1744.

In 1744 Prime Minister Henry Pelham (Arundell's brother-in-law) appointed Arundell a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, promoting him to be Treasurer of the Chamber in 1746, a position he held until 1755. He was also awarded in 1748 the sinecure of Clerk of the Pipe for life.

In 1740 Arundell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Arundell died childless on 20 January 1758. He had married Lady Frances Manners, the daughter of John Manners, 2nd Duke of Rutland in August 1732.

References

• Craig, John (1953). The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 225. ASIN B0000CIHG7.