Marshe Dickinson

Marshe Dickinson (24 June 1703 – 6 February 1765)[4] was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1754 and 1765 and held the office of Lord Mayor of London between 1756 and 1757.

Dickinson was educated at Westminster School until the age of fifteen in 1718 and later entered the Inner Temple before being called in 1728 after which he became a city attorney, later being listed as a practicing lawyer.

Dickinson's son later served as Surveyor of the Gardens and sat on the Board of Green Cloth but was convinced to give up the position to Richard Vernon in favour of a pension despite his father's unease at the proposal.

[7] The contest occurred while the young Duke of Bridgewater was on his Grand Tour which enabled a strong local opposition to form and organise behind a hitherto unknown outsider, Thomas Humberston.

[9] In the House of Commons Dickinson sat as both a Tory and a Bedfordite at the same time, thus demonstrating the increasing strain that partisan labels were coming under by the midpoint of the 18th-century.

Dickinson, like other Tories who owed their seats to Bedford, such as Robert Henley-Ongley were obliged to vote as the Duke pleased, unless issues of party principle intervened.

[10] He was proposed as a candidate in London at the 1761 general election, but withdrew after failing to receive sufficient support and was returned unopposed as a Member for Brackley with Robert Wood, an Anglo-Irish antiquarian and fellow Bedfordite.

Dickinson was, however, elected as the Chairman of Ways and Means in November 1761, a position he was deemed suited to on account of his links to merchants and finance.

On the earlier March debate, Lewis Namier quotes James Harris who noted: A bill had come to us from the Lords about certain trust lands at Tavistock, relating to the Duke of Bedford’s affairs, and which he had brought in.

A notable occasion of this was when Bedford attempted to convince Dickinson's son John to vacate his position on the Board of the Green Cloth in favour of Richard Vernon, with an assurance of a pension.