Robert Monckton (c. 1659–1722) was an English landowner and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1695 and 1713. 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.
Background and early life
Robert Monckton's father was Sir Philip Monckton, of Cavil, near Howden, Yorkshire. His mother was Anne Eyre, daughter of Robert Eyre of Highlow Hall, Derbyshire. Robert was the eldest son and had one brother, William, a naval officer, and a sister, Margaret.
Robert Monckton's education seems to have been patchy. On 26 May 1677, aged 17, he entered Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, the college formerly attended by Oliver Cromwell, but by 19 Nov. 1678 he was receiving legal training at the Middle Temple. He inherited the family estates at about the age of 20.
Revolutionary career
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. He became a committed opponent of the Duke of York, later James II. He went into exile in the Netherlands during the 1680s and was commissioned as an officer by William, Prince of Orange, on 10 November 1688. He took part in the invasion which carried through the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and was rewarded with a post as Commissioner for Trade and Plantations.
Political career
MP for Pontefract
Monckton became a client of the Whig grandee John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. With Newcastle's support, he contested the previously Tory constituency of Pontefract at the 1695 English general election. 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, Lowther and Monckton had taken the precaution of securing a number of burgage votes in the borough and there was actually a sizeable Dissenting community in the town, described by an Anglican clergyman as a "schismatic town." Lowther topped the poll with 80 votes and Monckton came a close second with 78. Sir John Bland, a defeated Tory, petitioned against the election, claiming electoral malpractice by the returning officer, but the petition failed.
The elections produced a Whig majority in the House of Commons, and William III, who had previously sought to balance Whigs and Tories, now leaned for support on the Whig Junto – a small elite grouping centred on John Somers, later Baron Somers; Charles Montagu, later Earl of Halifax; Thomas Wharton, later Marquess of Wharton and Edward Russell, later Earl of Orford. Monckton was aligned with the Country Whigs, a provincial Member backing the Whig ministry on many measures, but unwilling to countenance the more vindictive policies of the Junto. However, unlike Robert Harley, the most prominent of the Country party, he remained a committed Whig and did not drift toward the Tories.
Monckton was a reliable supporter of the King's economic demands, voting, for example, to fix the guinea at 22 shillings. However he voted against the attainder of Fenwick, the failed and pathetic Jacobite conspirator on 25 November 1696. In February 1697 he was called by the House of Lords as a witness 'to some matters which concern the Earl of Monmouth.' Monmouth had been Monckton's commanding officer in 1688 and had served as Tory First Lord of the Treasury but had since quarrelled with the king. He was accused of complicity in Fenwick's plot and imprisoned but released in March after investigation.
In February 1697 Monckton got into a financial dispute with Richard Vaughan, a blacksmith. Vaughan fetched Thomas Bailey to act as his bailiff, and together with Bailey and John Brown, broke into Monckton's London house in Vine Street. Monckton and his family suffered assault and a complaint of breach of Parliamentary privilege was entered. Bailey, Brown and Vaughan were taken into custody by the Serjeant-at-Arms. All three men petitioned the House unsuccessfully, and Vaughan was imprisoned in the Gatehouse for three days.
It is not clear whether the dispute was politically motivated, but it certainly did not affect Monckton's independence of judgement. Though a faithful Whig, in April he voted and acted as teller against a supply bill for a land tax. He was also enthusiastic about disbanding the army. On the other hand, he took over management of a bill against the corruption of juries and chaired a Committee of the Whole on the matter, although the bill lapsed in 1698, when fresh elections became due.