Sir Jacob Astley, 5th Baronet

Sir Jacob Astley Baronet (from 1802)
Astley sometime after 1780 by Benjamin Burnell
Member of Parliament for Norfolk (with Thomas Coke 1797-1807 and 1807-1817) and Edward Coke (1807)
In office 1797–1817
Preceded by	Thomas Coke and John Wodehouse, Bt.
Succeeded by	Thomas Coke and Edmond Wodehouse
Personal details
Born	(1756-09-12)September 12, 1756
Died	April 28, 1817(1817-04-28) (aged 60)
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Hester Browne
Children	Jacob
Mother	Rhoda Delaval
Father	Sir Edward Astley, 4th Baronet
Relatives	Edward Hussey Delaval (uncle)
Education	Westminster School
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Military service
Allegiance	Great Britain / United Kingdom
Service/branch	Militia / Fencibles
Years of service	1780-1797
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Unit	Norfolk Foot Militia
Commands	Norfolk Fencible Cavalry

Sir Jacob Henry Astley, 5th Baronet (12 September 1756 – 28 April 1817) was an English landowner and Member of Parliament.

Life

He was the third son of Sir Edward Astley, 4th Baronet of Melton Constable and Rhoda Delaval, daughter of Francis Blake Delaval of Seaton Delaval, Northumberland. He attended Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge.

On 14 January 1789 he married Hester Browne, by whom he had three sons and six daughters. His father Edward was MP for Norfolk for twenty-two years and gave it up in 1790 rather than contest it. Jacob was given a commission as a captain in the East Norfolk Militia in 1780, which he held until 1794, when he was made lieutenant colonel in the Norfolk Fencible Cavalry, a role he held for five years. He was on military service in Scotland in 1797 when his mother announced his candidature for one of the seats in his father's old constituency, which had fallen vacant when Sir John Wodehouse was made a peer. The constituency's other MP Thomas William Coke offered him financial help and Astley was returned unopposed, despite Wodehouse threatening to refuse his peerage and remain MP to block his election.^[1]

Astley professed neutrality and publicly distanced himself from Coke, but he did vote with the Whigs against William Pitt the Younger's assessed taxes and land tax redemption in late 1797 and early 1798, against the refusal to enter into peace negotiations with France in 1800 and for the censure motion by Grey on 25 March 1801. By his father's death in 1802 both his elder brothers had died and so he inherited the baronetcy and Melton Constable Hall in Norfolk. Again assisted by Coke, his re-election campaign of 1802 was fierce and he was attacked as "a liar, a coward, an assassin, a scoundrel, a murderer; and ...[the murderer of] his own father". He initiated a libel case, though the defence cited his own father's words just before his death and Astley was only awarded a fifth of the £10,000 damages he claimed.

When his mother's brother Edward Hussey Delaval died in 1814 he inherited his estate of Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland.

Melton Constable Hall, Norfolk

Seaton Delaval Hall, Northumberland

The 1806 election elected Coke and William Windham as the MPs for Norfolk, but on petition this result was declared invalid and in a by-election the following year Coke's younger brother Edward and Astley were elected instead. Astley took leaves of absence in 1815 and 1816 and died in 1817. His eldest son Jacob succeeded him in the baronetcy.

References