page_title: Joseph Mawbey
section_title: In politics
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Mawbey / In politics
caption_attribution_description: A pig in a poke. Whist, whist' (Sir Joseph Mawbey, 1st Bt), by James Gillray, publisher Samuel William Fores (floruit 1841), published 1788. See source website for additional information. This set of images was gathered by User:Dcoetzee from the National Portrait Gallery, London website using a special tool. According to the NPG's website the work was published prior to 1859, and so the author is reasonably presumed dead by 1939.
context_page_description: Sir Joseph Mawbey, 1st Baronet was an English distiller and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1761 and 1790. He was a supporter of John Wilkes.
context_section_description: On his uncle's death in 1754, Mawbey inherited property in Surrey and established himself as a landed proprietor. He was High Sheriff of Surrey in 1757, bought the estate of Botleys in Chertsey in 1763, on which he built a large house, and for a quarter of a century was chairman of the Surrey quarter sessions. From 1761 to 1768 and from 1768 to 1774 he sat for Southwark, his colleague in the two-member constituency being Henry Thrale from 1765. He was created a baronet (30 July 1765) as a political ally by the Marquess of Rockingham.
  On 14 November 1768 John Wilkes presented a petition through Mawbey. It covered points including the case brought over The North Briton, an allegation that Lord Mansfield had altered a record, and an allegation that Philip Carteret Webb had bribed Michael Curry, Wilkes's printer and a witness. Speeches by Mawbey on the proceedings against Wilkes were later published, in the Debates by Sir Henry Cavendish, 2nd Baronet. Mawbey was a significant force in the Bill of Rights Society that gave Wilkes practical support, and took Wilkes's side in the internal struggle, leading to a split in the Society, with supporters of John Horne.
  In 1774 Mawbey contested the county of Surrey, but was defeated, though with 1,390 votes, by a cross-party agreement brokered by George Onslow who saw no chance of his own re-election; Sir Francis Vincent, 7th Baronet and James Scawen were returned. Vincent died in May 1775, causing a chance vacancy; and in June 1775 Mawbey was at the head of the poll. He was in the same position in 1780, when he offended some of his Whig supporters through his refusal to coalesce with Admiral Keppel; and in April 1784 he was returned without a contest.
  Mawbey was unpopular with the local gentry. He claimed to be above party, but was in the end a figure of fun and satire: he was introduced by James Gillray into his caricatures. He became a supporter of the Tory Pitt the Younger. In 1790, however, he was defeated by William Clement Finch who had Treasury backing.
caption: A pig in a poke, 1788 caricature by James Gillray, publisher Samuel William Fores, with Sir Joseph Mawbey on the left.
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