Gilbert John Heathcote, 1st Baron Aveland (16 January 1795 – 6 September 1867), known as Sir Gilbert John Heathcote, 5th Baronet from 1851 to 1856, of Stocken Hall, Rutland, was a British peer and Whig politician.[1]
In 1820 he was elected to Parliament for Boston, a seat he held until 1830, and again from 1831 to 1832. He later represented Lincolnshire South from 1832 to 1841 and Rutland from 1841 to 1856. Olney describes him as "lukewarm in politics", with the "South Lincolnshire Liberals [finding] it hard to do anything with him, but equally hard to act without him."[4] In 1856 Heathcote was raised to the peerage as Baron Aveland, of Aveland in the County of Lincoln. Having been previously a Deputy Lieutenant for Lancashire and Rutland,[2] he later served as Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire from 1862 to 1867.[5] As Lord Lieutenant his duties included the appointment, from advised candidates, of county magistrates, in which he was considered socially conservative being reluctant to appoint those not considered of suitable social standing, however respectable. In 1866 he expressed opposition to the 1867–passed Reform Act designed to widen franchise.[5] Heathcote was appointed honorary colonel of the South Lincoln Militia in 1857.[2]
^ abOlney R. J. (1979); Rural Society and County Government in Nineteenth Century Lincolnshire, Society of Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, pp.23, 103, 154. ISBN0902668099
Further reading
Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990, [page needed]