Sir Jacob Astley, 5th Baronet
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Sir Jacob Astley Baronet (from 1802) |
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Astley sometime after 1780
by Benjamin Burnell |
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| Member of Parliament for Norfolk (with Thomas Coke 1797-1807 and 1807-1817) and Edward Coke (1807) |
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In office 1797–1817 |
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| Preceded by | Thomas Coke and John Wodehouse, Bt. |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Coke and Edmond Wodehouse |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 12, 1756 |
| Died | April 28, 1817 (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.
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.
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.
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