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John Olmius, 1st Baron Waltham

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New Hall (or Palace of Beaulieu), Boreham

John Olmius, 1st Baron Waltham (18 July 1711 – 5 October 1762), of New Hall, Boreham, Essex, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1737 and 1762.

Background

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Olmius was the only son of John Olmius, of Braintree, Essex, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, and his wife Elizabeth Clarke, daughter and heiress of Thomas Clarke, a London merchant. He was the grandson of a wealthy Dutch merchant who had settled in England. He acquired New Hall near Boreham, Essex, in 1737.[1]

Political career

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Olmius was returned to Parliament as one of four representatives for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis at a by-election on 10 March 1737.[1] He was returned as MP for Colchester instead at the 1741 British general election but was unseated on petition on 26 February 1742.[1] He was a supporter of Walpole and later Newcastle and Pelham. From 1746 to 1747 he was High Sheriff of Essex.[1]

Olmius remained out of Parliament for twelve years, but at the 1754 British general election he was once again returned for Colchester.[2] At the 1761 British general election, he was returned for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis for a second time.[2] Olmius had applied to Lord Bute for an English peerage in the 1761 coronation honours but was overlooked.[2] However, in June 1762, only four months before his death, he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Waltham, of Philipstown in the King's County.[3]

Family

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Lord Waltham married Anne Billers, daughter and heiress of Sir William Billers, of Thorley, Hertfordshire, Lord Mayor of London, in 1741. They had one son and a daughter. He died in October 1762, aged 51, and was succeeded in the barony by his only son, Drigue, on whose death in 1787 the title became extinct.[2] Waltham's daughter and eventual heiress the Honourable Elizabeth Olmius married John Luttrell, later 3rd Earl of Carhampton, who later assumed the additional surname of Olmius in respect of his father-in-law.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "OLMIUS, John (1711-62), of New Hall, Boreham, Essex". History of Parliament Online (1715-1754). Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d The History of Parliament: OLMIUS, John (1711-62), of New Hall, Boreham, Essex. (Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964)
  3. ^ "No. 10206". The London Gazette. 4 May 1762. p. 3.
  4. ^ thepeerage.com John Olmius, 1st Baron Waltham
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis
1737–1741
With: Thomas Pearse,
George Dodington
and John Tucker
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Colchester
1741–1742
With: Matthew Martin
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Colchester
1754–1761
With: Charles Gray 1754–1755
Isaac Martin Rebow 1755–1761
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis
1761–1762
With: John Tucker,
Sir Francis Dashwood, Bt
and Richard Glover
Succeeded by
Peerage of Ireland
New creation Baron Waltham
June–October 1762
Succeeded by