Holmes, William

by Bridget Hourican

Holmes, William (1779–1851), politician, was born in Sligo, fifth son of Thomas Holmes, brewer of Farmhill, Co. Sligo, and his wife Anne, daughter of Harlow Phibbs of Co. Sligo. He was educated at TCD, where he matriculated (6 April 1795) but did not graduate. Entering the army, he served (1803–7) as captain in the West Indies, where he was military secretary to Sir Thomas Hislop. Retiring from the army in 1807, on his marriage to Lady Helen Stronge, widow of the Rev. Sir James Stronge, and daughter of John Tew of Dublin, he contested (1808) the parliamentary seat of Grampound, Cornwall, and was defeated but obtained his seat on petition, sitting 1808–12. The latter year he was returned for Tregony, Cornwall (1812–18), then for Totnes, Devon (1818–20), Bishop's Castle, Shropshire (1820–30), Haslemere, Surrey (1830–32), and Berwick-upon-Tweed (1837–41). In 1835 he unsuccessfully contested Ipswich, and in 1841 stood for Stafford but was not elected; he then quitted parliament.

‘Black Billy’ Holmes built up a reputation early in his parliamentary career for untrustworthiness. Twice in 1810 he voted with the opposition against Spencer Perceval's administration, though he subsequently rallied to the government. During the 1812 election he gave his cousin, Charles Arbuthnot, secretary to the treasury, the impression that he was a government supporter, while working undercover to advance the interests of George Canning. On this being revealed, Arbuthnot was incensed and declared that he had no idea of his cousinship with Holmes, whom he had ‘always thought of as a very low vulgar sort. . . the loss of men like [him] will never materially injure any government’ (Hist. parl.: commons, 1790–1829, 218). Nevertheless Holmes sided with the government during the subsequent parliament and failed to give Canning the support on which he had counted. He voted against catholic relief twice in 1813, and again in 1816 and 1817, and opposed it to the end. In 1829, by special permission of the duke of Wellington (qv), he gave his vote against the ministerial catholic relief bill.

After frequent petitions to the prince regent for a salaried post, he was made treasurer of the ordnance (1818–30), and was also agent for Demerara (1820–33), having previously obtained leave for a bill (1818) to authorise the transfer of slaves from one colony to another, with particular reference to Demerara. He arranged a post in Jamaica for one of his brothers, and the collectorship of Sligo for another. From 1818 to 1832 he was tory whip, a post well-suited to ‘his ready wit, his perpetual good humour, and the entire absence in his nature of anything approaching shyness’ (Gleig, 260). He maintained close contacts with the whigs (being therefore able to estimate the outcome of a vote) and was also used as a go-between. Among his most significant ventures was the transfer (January 1832) of the party headquarters from the small Charles St. office to the Carlton Club, which became a flourishing social and political centre for the tories. However, his reputation for untrustworthiness dogged him. On the grounds of expense, he did not seek election in 1832, and when he returned to parliament in 1837 and sought his old post, Granville Somerset wrote to Sir Robert Peel (qv) that the bulk of the party would not tolerate him because of his vulgar manners and conversation, his indiscretion, his inquisitiveness, and his excessive familiarity with other parties. Sir Thomas Fremantle (qv) was duly appointed whip and Holmes's career declined. He died 26 January 1851 at his home in Grafton Street, London, leaving one son.