John Wodehouse, 2nd Baron Wodehouse


John Wodehouse, 2nd Baron Wodehouse, styled The Honourable John Wodehouse from 1797 to 1834, was a British peer and Member of Parliament.

Background

Wodehouse was the eldest son of John Wodehouse, 1st Baron Wodehouse and Sophia Berkeley. On 10 October 1793 he was commissioned as Captain in the Norfolk Militia commanded by his father. On 14 July 1798 he was promoted to take over from his father as Colonel, the third generation of his family to command the regiment. In 1842 he was succeeded in command by his own son, Berkeley.

Political career

Wodehouse was elected to the House of Commons for Great Bedwyn in 1796, a seat he held until 1802. In the general election that year he stood for Norfolk, but was defeated by Thomas Coke and Sir Jacob Astley; he was likewise defeated by Coke and William Windham in the 1806 election. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk in 1821. He later represented Marlborough from 1818 to 1826. In 1834 he succeeded his father in the barony and entered the House of Lords as a Conservative. Wodehouse was a Peelite, and gave his proxy to the ministry to vote for repeal of the Corn Laws in the Lords shortly before his death.

Family

Lord Wodehouse married Charlotte Laura Norris, daughter of John Norris, of Witton Park, Norfolk, in 1796. They had eleven children:
He died in 1846, aged 76, and was succeeded in the barony by his grandson John, who became a prominent Liberal politician and was created Earl of Kimberley in 1866.