William Bromley (Speaker)

The Right Honourable William Bromley
Portrait byMichael Dahl
Speaker of the House of Commons of Great Britain
In office 1710–1713
Preceded by	Richard Onslow
Succeeded by	Sir Thomas Hanmer
Secretary of State for the Northern Department
In office 17 August 1713 – September 1714
Preceded by	The Viscount Bolingbroke
Succeeded by	The Viscount Townshend
Personal details
Born	1663 Warwickshire
Died	13 February 1732
Parents	Sir William Bromley (father) Hon. Ursula Bromley (mother)

William Bromley(1663 – 13 February 1732) of Baginton, Warwickshire, was an English Tory politician who sat in theEnglishandBritish House of Commonsbetween 1690 and 1732. He wasSpeakerof theHouse of Commons of Great Britainfrom 1710 to 1713 andSecretary of State for the Northern Departmentfrom 1713 to 1714.

Bromley was aHanoverian Torywho supported theHanoverian Successionin 1714.

Early life

Bromley was the son of Sir William Bromley (died 1682) of Baginton, and his wife Ursula Leigh, daughter ofThomas Leigh, 1st Baron Leighof Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. He was born at the family seat atBaginton,Warwickshire, and was baptized on 31 August 1663.

He matriculated atChrist Church, Oxfordin 1679, and graduatedB.A.in 1681 (he was later awarded aD.C.L.in 1702). In 1683, he was admitted as a student of theMiddle Temple.

Political career

Remarks in the Grand Tour of France and Italy,1705

Bromley missed theGlorious Revolutionbecause he was travelling in France and Italy in 1688, following the death of his first wife in 1688 (he eventually married four times). Upon his return to England he embarked on a political career. Throughout his time in public life Bromley was a staunch high churchTorywith a reputation for honesty and extreme partisanship. His political rivals sometimes found it useful to allegeJacobitesympathies and to refer to Bromley's travel memoirsRemarks on theGrand Tourof France and Italyto support that allegation.

At the1690 English general electionBromley was returned asknight of the shire(MP) forWarwickshire.An able debater, his reputation rose rapidly; particularly amongst the Tory squires who shared similar prejudices. In 1696 Bromley refused to take an oath to swear thatWilliam IIIwas the rightful and lawful King. As a result, he was incapacitated from serving in Parliament and was not re-elected for Warwickshire in 1698.

Bromley returned to Parliament for the strongly High Tory constituency ofOxford University,at a by-election in March 1701, after which Bromley was a leading figure in the Tory ranks. He continued to hold one of the university's two seats for the rest of his life.

Bromley was a strong opponent of occasional conformity by religious dissenters, who attended Church of England services often enough to avoid the legal penalties imposed by theTest and Corporation Acts.Bromley promoted several bills to strengthen the law, but they were not adopted.

From 1702 to 1705 Bromley was the Chairman of the Committee of Privileges and Elections of the House of Commons. In 1705 he was a candidate for the Speakership. On this occasion a new edition of Bromley's travel memoirs was produced by his political enemies (with an added table pointing the reader to the alleged pro-Catholic and Jacobite passages in the book). Bromley did not become Speaker in 1705.

Following the1710 electionthere was a large Tory majority in the House of Commons. On 25 November 1710 Bromley was elected Speaker, without opposition. He was sworn in as a member of thePrivy Councilin 1711.

In his position as Speaker in 1713, Bromley responded to questions from a Scottish MP with the infamous reply that "they had catcht hold of Scotland, they wou'd keep her fast.", thereby given credence to the widely held belief in Scotland that Union was a means for England to assert her dominance over Scotland.Lockhart Papers

In 1713 Bromley left the chair of the House to join the administration as Secretary of State for the Northern Department. He lost that office in 1714, when the new KingGeorge Iinstalled aWhigministry. Bromley never held government office again, but he remained the generally recognised leading Tory in the House of Commons until his health declined in the 1720s. Bromley remained an MP until his death in 1732.

He remained a strong supporter of Robert Harley, during hisimpeachment trialfrom 1715 to 1717.

Family

Bromley was married four times:

1. Catherine Cloberry, daughter of SirJohn CloberryMP.They had one son:
   • Clobery BromleyMP(1685–1711)
2. Trever Fortrey, daughter of Samuel Fortrey, on 21 November 1689. They had no children.
3. Cecilia Swan, daughter of Sir William Swan, 1st Bt. They had one son.
4. Elizabeth Stawell, daughter ofRalph Stawell, 1st Baron Stawell,on 12 January 1698. They had two sons and two daughters:
   • Thomas Bromley (died 1716), ofChrist Church, Oxfordand theInner Temple,M.A.at Oxford 1716
   • William BromleyMP(died 1737)
   • Elizabeth Bromley (died 1742)
   • Anne Bromley

Arms

Coat of arms of William Bromley

Crest Out of a ducal coronet Or a demi-lion Argent supporting a banner Gules charged with a lion passant Gold staff of the last (the standard of Guiénne). Escutcheon Quarterly per fess indented Gules and Or an escutcheon Argent charged with a griffin segreant Vert

References

• "Bromley, William (1664-1732)".Dictionary of National Biography.London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
• The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 7,edited by H.C.G. Mathew and Brian Harrison (Oxford University Press 2004)