Sir Stephen Lushington, 1st Baronet

For other people named Stephen Lushington, see Stephen Lushington (disambiguation).

Sir Stephen Lushington, 1st Baronet (17 June 1744 – 12 January 1807), of South Hill Park in Easthampstead, Berkshire, was an English Member of Parliament and Chairman of the East India Company.

Lushington was the third son of the Reverend Henry Lushington, vicar of Eastbourne.

From 1782 he was a director of the East India Company, and supported the reforms of the company being proposed by Charles James Fox; these would have brought the company under the control of a board of commissioners appointed by Parliament, and it was intended that Lushington should be one of the assistant commissioners. In 1783, as Fox prepared to introduce his India Bill in the House of Commons, Christopher Atkinson, one of the MPs for Hedon in Yorkshire, was convicted of fraud and would therefore be expelled from the House. Hedon was a rotten borough where the Foxites could expect their candidate to be elected, and Lushington's name was put forward by Prime Minister Portland to fill the vacancy.

Atkinson was formally expelled from the Commons on 4 December 1783, and a writ for the by-election was issued. However, the following day the Commons amended the East India Bill to make the assistant commissioners ineligible to sit in Parliament. This forced Lushington to choose between an assistant commissionership and a seat in Parliament and, knowing that the majority of the East India directors opposed Fox's bill he decided the latter was preferable. On 15 December he was elected unopposed for Hedon, but on the same day the House of Lords unexpectedly defeated Fox's India bill and the government fell.

Lushington spoke in opposition to the East India bill proposed by the new government under Pitt the Younger, which placed control of the Company in the hands of a board appointed by the Crown rather than by Parliament. In the general election of 1784 he was a candidate at Hastings, rather than defending his seat at Hedon, but was defeated.

He was deputy chairman of the East India Company in 1789-1790, and its chairman for three terms - 1790-1791, 1795–1796 and 1799-1800. He was created a baronet on 26 April 1791.

He returned to Parliament in 1790 as member for Helston, and was an MP for the rest of his life, subsequently also representing Mitchell, Penryn and Plympton Erle.

In 1771 he married Hester Boldero (d. 1830), whose father settled the manors of Aspenden and Berkesdon in Hertfordshire on the couple. Their children included:

Sir Henry Lushington (1775–1863), who succeeded to the baronetcy
Stephen Lushington (1782–1873), a Member of Parliament and later a judge
Charles Lushington (1785–1866), secretary to the government of Bengal and later also an MP

References

Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
Dictionary of National Biography
Hertfordshire genealogy

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by William Chaytor Christopher Atkinson	Member of Parliament for Hedon 1783–1784 With: William Chaytor	Succeeded by William Chaytor Lionel Darell
Preceded by James Bland Burges Roger Wilbraham	Member of Parliament for Helston 1790–1796 With: Gilbert Elliot 1790-95 Charles Abbot 1795-96	Succeeded by Charles Abbot Richard Richards
Preceded by Sir Christopher Hawkins David Howell	Member of Parliament for Mitchell 1796–1800 With: Sir Christopher Hawkins 1796-99 John Simpson 1799-1800	Succeeded by Parliament of the United Kingdom
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Parliament of Great Britain	Member of Parliament for Mitchell 1801–1802 With: John Simpson	Succeeded by Robert Dallas Robert Sharpe Ainslie
Preceded by Thomas Wallace William Meeke	Member of Parliament for Penryn 1802–1806 With: Sir John Nicholl	Succeeded by Henry Swann Sir Christopher Hawkins
Preceded by Edward Golding Philip Metcalfe	Member of Parliament for Plympton Erle 1806–1807 With: The Viscount Castlereagh	Succeeded by The Viscount Castlereagh William Assheton Harbord
Baronetage of Great Britain
New creation	Baronet (of Hill Park) 1791–1807	Succeeded by Henry Lushington

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