Jump to content

Manasseh Masseh Lopes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 80.42.43.71 (talk) at 13:59, 16 June 2020 (I added that his family were sugar planters and slave-owners in Jamaica before he moved. I used as reference UCL's online reference library of British slave-ownership). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Sir Manasseh Masseh Lopes, 1st Baronet (1755-1831)
Arms of Lopes: Azure, a chevron or charged with three bars gemelles gules between three eagles rising of the second on a chief of the second five lozenges of the first[1]

Sir Manasseh Masseh Lopes, 1st Baronet (27 January 1755 – 26 March 1831), of Maristow in the parish of Tamerton Foliot, Devon, was a British Member of Parliament and borough-monger.

Parliamentary career

Lopes was a member of a wealthy family of Portuguese Jews, and was born in Jamaica. His family were sugar planters and slave-owners in Jamaica before he came to the UK.[2] In 1798 he had acquired Maristow House near Roborough in Devon, which became his family seat. He had also for many years been investing part of his fortune in acquiring influence in a number of parliamentary boroughs.

By the law as it stood at that period, no member of the Jewish religion could be elected to Parliament. (Many Christian denominations were similarly prohibited.) In 1802, Lopes converted to Christianity, and later the same year he entered Parliament as Tory member for New Romney. He subsequently also represented Evesham from 1807 and Barnstaple from 1812. In 1810, he bought control of the pocket borough of Westbury from Montagu Bertie, 5th Earl of Abingdon when the latter sold the manor of Westbury.[3][4] Westbury was a burgage borough where the right to vote was attached to the ownership of certain properties; Lopes had bought all but two of these "burgage tenements", giving him the absolute power to name both of Westbury's MPs. (Unlike bribery, transactions of this sort were perfectly legal.) Between 1814 and 1819, he gave one of those seats to his nephew and heir, Ralph Franco.

Meanwhile, Lopes was exerting his influence in various boroughs on behalf of the government, and in 1805 he was created a baronet, with a special remainder to his nephew Ralph Franco,[5] son of his sister Esther. (Ralph, who inherited the baronetcy on his death, later changed his surname to Lopes). In 1810 he was appointed High Sheriff of Devon.[6]

In 1819, Sir Manasseh was discovered to have bribed the voters in two separate constituencies at the previous year's general election. Such corruption was common, but reformers were looking for a cause celebre to give prominence to their campaign, and it seems likely that, as a foreign Jew, Lopes was seen as an ideal villain for the purpose. In his own Barnstaple constituency, he was alleged to have spent £3000 on bribing the voters, and after investigation his election was declared void. Meanwhile, at Grampound in Cornwall, although no official protest had been entered against the election result, proceedings had been taken under the criminal law and Lopes was convicted, fined £1000 and jailed for two years. As a result of the scandal, the already notoriously corrupt borough of Grampound was permanently deprived of its right to return MPs. Lopes' sentence was remitted in September 1820, and he put himself into Parliament at Westbury in a by-election in November.

In 1829, the Duke of Wellington's Tory government decided to legislate for Catholic Emancipation, a policy which was heretical to their own Ultra-Tory supporters. The Home Secretary, Robert Peel, whose own Oxford University constituency was one of the greatest strongholds of opponents of Catholic Emancipation, felt compelled to resign and fight a by-election to receive a mandate for his change of policy, and was defeated. To allow Peel to return to the Commons in time to move the bill, Lopes vacated his own seat at Westbury and elected Peel in his place. This provoked considerable hostile comment, not least because the government had responded to the Anglican establishment voting against them by acquiring a seat from a Jewish-born borough owner. Lopes reportedly expected to be rewarded for providing his seat at so vital a moment with a peerage, but he was disappointed.

Although Peel had no need of the seat after the general election which came the following year, Lopes did not stand again.

Death

Sir Manasseh died in 1831 aged 76. There is a memorial to him by Richard Westmacott in Bickleigh Church.[7]

References

  1. ^ Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p.942
  2. ^ "Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slave-ownership". www.ucl.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  3. ^ "Westbury: Manors". A History of the County of Wiltshire. Vol. 8. London: Victoria County History. 1965. pp. 148–163. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
  4. ^ Thorne, R. G. (1986). "Westbury". In Thorne, R. G. (ed.). The House of Commons 1790–1820. The History of Parliament Trust.
  5. ^ "No. 15848". The London Gazette. 5 October 1805. p. 1245.
  6. ^ The House of Commons 1790-1820
  7. ^ Pevsner, N. (1952) South Devon. Penguin Books; p. 51
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for New Romney
1802–1806
With: John Willett Willett 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Evesham
1807–1808
With: William Manning 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Barnstaple
1812–1819
With: Sir Eyre Coote 1812–1818
Francis Molyneux Ommanney 1818–1819 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Westbury
1820–1829
With: Philip John Miles 1820–1826
Sir George Warrender 1826–1829 		Succeeded by
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Maristow)
1805–1831 		Succeeded by

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Manasseh_Masseh_Lopes&oldid=962876330"