Edward Legge

Hon. Edward Legge (1710 – September 19, 1747) was a British Royal Navy captain who achieved a distinction when he was returned as Member of Parliament for Portsmouth on December 15, 1747 – an honour which meant little to him as he had died 87 days before.

Legge was the fifth son of the Earl of Dartmouth. He joined the Royal Navy in 1726 and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1734 and to Captain in 1738. The First Lord of the Admiralty, the Duke of Bedford, named him in command of a squadron in the West Indies in 1747.

After the 1747 general election, a vacancy occurred in Portsmouth because one of the elected MPs was Thomas Gore who chose to sit for Bedford. Portsmouth was under the control of the Admiralty and the Duke thought of nominating Legge. Legge's brother George (Viscount Lewisham) had been an MP until his death from smallpox, and his brother Henry was sitting on the Bedford interest in Orford. Henry wrote back to the Duke on August 4, 1747 to say:

:The least return the Legges can make for the many instances of partiality they have received from your Grace, is to do all in their power to make the effects of that favour as little troublesome to their benefactor as possible; and for my own part I can see no objection to the declaring Ned a candidate for Portsmouth since your Grace is so kind as to see none to accepting of him in that light yourself.

With Edward duly returned unopposed as a supporter of the Pelham administration, the Legge family was distressed to learn four days later that he had died three months previously. Legge was not the only Member of Parliament returned posthumously, but he is the one returned the longest time after his death.

References

* History of Parliament 1710-1754, vol. 2, p. 206