Robert Monckton (died 1722)

He took an active part supporting William of Orange in the Glorious Revolution, and was notable for his involvement in a number of exceptionally bitter and prolonged electoral disputes.

Unlike his father, who preened himself on his apparently shaky royalist credentials, Robert had Puritan associates: he was listed as Low Church in an analysis of the 1705 Parliament.

[5] His Whig running mate was Sir William Lowther of Swillington, a Presbyterian landowner who was jeered as a "Commonwealthsman" when he plied the electorate with wine.

However, unlike Robert Harley, the most prominent of the Country party, he remained a committed Whig and did not drift toward the Tories.

The investigating committee found in Bright's favour, and put a motion to the House of Commons to declare him elected, but it failed.

This time Bright beat Monckton by seven votes, but another petition from the burgesses and aldermen alleged further malpractice, and the case was again referred to committee.

However, rumours of an early dissolution of Parliament were spreading and Monckton hastened to use his alliance with Newcastle to obtain a safer seat.

As a result of Newcastle's influence, Monckton was returned as Member of Parliament unopposed in January 1701, along with Cyril Arthington, who had contested the seat unsuccessfully in the past and had the support of another local landowner.

The first move to redefine party loyalties came in February with a motion to urge the King to recognise the Duke of Anjou, Louis XIV's grandson, as 'King of Spain'.

He demanded support for England and its allies in what would soon become the War of the Spanish Succession, saying that "he, for one, would be prepared to eat only roots for the good of his country."

In April came moves to remove the Junto members Somers, Halifax and Orford, together with Portland, from the king's council.

When the motion came up for debate, Monckton proposed an amendment that the House "would support the King in preventing the union of France and Spain and in the maintaining of the trade and commerce of this kingdom."

This irrelevant and unpalatable amendment led to heated debate, with Monckton predicting dire commercial consequences for the present policies.

Harley, now Speaker, rose and removed his hat, a gesture intended to silence Monckton, but he continued his diatribe, even when called to order.

In 1710 he was reported as saying "he'll be no Whig any longer, for he says he angered since he came to town some of his old friends by being so reasonable as to maintain 'twas fit the Queen should use her pleasure in disposing employments as she pleases."

Monckton continued his personal friendship with Harley, now Lord Treasurer and head of a Tory ministry, while still voting with the Whigs on most issues.

Moore was accused of making personal profit from this work, in particular annexing a substantial part of the asiento de negros, the Spanish concession of supplying slaves to the Spain's colonies in the Americas.

The queen died in August 1714, and with a new reign, a new dynasty and a new session of parliament, Monckton retired to his Yorkshire estates.