Quintin Dick

Quintin Dick (7 February 1777 – 26 March 1858) was an Irish Peelite, independent, Conservative, and Tory politician, and barrister.

Family Born in Dublin, Dick was the eldest child of East India merchant and proprietor Samuel Dick and Charlotte née Forster, daughter of Nicholas Forster. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with a BA in 1797, before becoming a barrister of King's Inns, Dublin, in 1800. He died at his home in Mayfair, London, in 1858, unmarried, leaving an estate worth almost £300,000.

1826 election After a long period outside of Parliament, and being "thrown out of his gig and nearly killed" in August 1820, Dick sought election as a Tory professing independence at Maldon at the 1826. At first securing the support of Colchester Radical MP Daniel Whittle Harvey, on the basis his politics would be congenial, Dick stood on an anti-Catholic agenda. However, at the nomination he landed third, behind his fellow candidates Thomas Barrett-Lennard and George Allanson-Winn, and then came third and last at the eventual election, narrowly defeated by 53 votes.

Orford MP Charges were again levelled at him that he was "merely a wealth cat's paw" for the Tories, and later that year he paid an additional £4,000 to become MP for Orford at a by-election in 1826—called when "his friend" Horace Seymour chose to sit for Bodmin, which he had also been elected to at the general election.

Maldon MP At the 1830 general election, Dick left Orford to successfully seek election, unopposed, as a Tory at Maldon, alongside the Whig Thomas Barrett-Lennard. and 1854 as a Peelite.

Aylesbury MP Nevertheless, Dick's protectionist record and money allowed him to gain the Aylesbury seat as a Conservative at a by-election in 1848, caused by the election of John Peter Deering being declared void due to treating. He held the seat until 1852.

Military Dick also served in the military, becoming captain of the West Essex militia in 1839, and Lieutenant-Colonel from 1846 to 1852.