Henry Pelham

Henry Pelham (c.1661 – 1 April 1721) was an English Member of Parliament. A younger son of Sir John Pelham, 3rd Baronet, he was returned for two Parliamentary constituencies in Sussex, where the family held considerable influence, for most of the time between 1690 and 1702. Appointed to the sinecure office of Clerk of the Pells in 1698, Pelham was a reliable Whig and Court-supporting placeman.

Education and family Pelham was born in about 1661, the third son of Sir John Pelham, 3rd Baronet. He was educated at Eton from about 1673 to 1678, and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford on 14 February 1679. He also entered Gray's Inn in 1678. On 18 December 1683, he married Frances Byne, daughter of John Byne, by whom he had three sons and four daughters: Henry was classed by Lord Carmarthen as a Whig, but his Parliamentary activity at the time is not easily distinguished from that of his brother Thomas, who sat for Lewes. In the House, Henry regularly supported the Government, signed the Association in February 1696, and voted for the attainder of Sir John Fenwick. In May 1697, Thomas was again named a Lord of the Treasury, and obtained for Henry the office of Clerk of the Pells when it was vacated by the death of William Wardour in January 1697/8. His right to the office, a sinecure worth £2,000 per year, was disputed by Thomas Strangways, who held a reversionary grant to it from Charles II, but the office was ultimately adjudged to be in the gift of the Lord High Treasurer rather than the King, and Pelham retained it until his death. and it was perhaps with a view to reconciliation that Henry vacated his seat at the January 1701 English general election to make a place for the Attorney General, Sir Thomas Trevor. Trevor's judicial appointment in June allowed Henry to again take up the Lewes seat at the November 1701 English general election, having meanwhile loaned the town £200. Unlike Thomas, Henry was held to be a reliable Whig, and in January 1702, he acted as teller against hearing the Maidstone election case before the bar of the House. He did not stand at the 1702 election and retired from Parliament.

Later years The death of Sir John Pelham in January 1703 gave rise to an extended falling-out between Thomas and Henry over the division of their father's estate. The two finally reached a settlement of the property in 1708. Henry was appointed a commissioner for taking subscriptions to the South Sea Company in 1711. He died on 1 April 1721 and was buried in St Anne's Church, Soho.