Humphry Morice (MP for Launceston)

He was the son of Humphry Morice, MP, who embezzled large sums of money from the Bank of England and his daughter's trust fund and was widely believed to have poisoned himself to forestall exposure.

The death of his second cousin in 1750 brought Morice great wealth and the electoral control of two Cornish boroughs, but his poor health and perhaps his personality prevented him from achieving high office.

[3] In 1750, however, the younger Humphry inherited considerable wealth and the estate of Werrington, Cornwall (then in Devon) upon the death of his second cousin, Sir William Morice, 3rd Baronet.

[5] After Bedford fell out with the Whigs Pelham and Newcastle, the Duke offered Morice complete freedom to choose candidates for the two boroughs if he would go into opposition against the ministry.

Morice refused, and reported to Pelham that he would only nominate supporters of the ministry, and intended to turn out the sitting members (Tories chosen by Sir William) at the next election.

The "vianders", the returning officers of Newport, were appointed by Morice as lord of the manor of Werrington, and Rigby reported to Bedford that they had been blatantly partisan in their disqualification of votes.

When Newcastle was whipping MPs in October 1755 to ensure their support of the Ministry's military actions in North America, his election manager, Viscount Dupplin, warned him that he must write directly to Morice, who was apt to be "high and a little touchy".

An avid collector of paintings, particularly landscapes, Morice built up a notable collection at his house, "The Grove", in Chiswick, which Walpole would admire in later years.

His character has a ridicule, to say nothing more, belonging to it; it will certainly lower the dignity of the place..." Fox suggested that Morice might be reappointed to a lesser office on the Board of Green Cloth again.

[2] He raised the question as to whether the wardenship and its concomitant offices (High Steward of Cornwall and Rider and Master Forester of Dartmoor) would vacate his seat and necessitate a by-election, but the House of Commons agreed this was not the case.

The two had been condemned to death at the summer assizes at Bodmin for wrecking, and opinion in Morice's boroughs running much in their favour, he felt obliged to act on their behalf.

[8] Morice informed Lord North of his decision in a written memorial, explaining that the expense of electioneering (£3,000 per year above and beyond the £1,200 revenues of Werrington), the effects of his gout, the prodigality of his steward in maintaining his interest, and his check in the 1774 elections had all convinced him to give up control of the boroughs.

[2] His health was indeed declining: Horace Walpole thought he looked "dreadfully ill" at a dinner party at Princess Amelia's in 1779, and the following year, reported him "confined in Paris by the gout".

While there, he received the news that Margaret, the widow of Sir Robert Brown, had died and left him a life interest in an estate worth £1,500 per year.

[2] With the sale of his properties in Cornwall to the Duke of Northumberland, his retention as Lord Warden of the Stannaries was an anomaly; the Second Rockingham Ministry considered removing him, but it was the Fox-North Coalition that did so in August 1783, shortly after a rumour of his death had reached England and been subsequently contradicted.

He asked Earl Tylney's surgeon to remove his heart after death to prevent his being buried alive, and instructed that his two servants, executors as regards his effects in Naples, were to continued dwelling in his house there for a suitable time so that they did not have to return to England in the height of summer or winter.

An earlier codicil, written to his trustees, directed that an annuity of £600, drawing on his remaining estates in Devon and Cornwall, was to be used to pay for the upkeep of his horses and dogs, the surplus to go to his legatee, Mrs. Levina Luther.