Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury 6th Bart.

Whig MP for Suffolk 1761-1784, 1790-1812, and landowner in Cheshire and Suffolk. 'His passion was for the turf rather than for politics', and he was co-founder of the Oaks as well as the Derby. He was reportedly a reformer and an abolitionist in the debates over the slave-trade: nevertheless, he was also a slave-owner in Grenada. He was the object of Gillray's cartoon 'Symptoms of deep thinking' in 1800 (now in the National Portrait Gallery), and has an entry in the ODNB as 'horse racing administrator and politician.'

1. Will of Thomas Charles Bunbury of Great Barton Suffolk [made 27/06/1808] proved 09/06/1821. In the will he left his property including estates in Grenada lately purchased of Lauchlin Macleane in trust for his brother Henry William Bunbury [who has an entry in the ODNB as 'artist and caricaturist'] for life and then to his [the testator's] nephew Henry Edward Bunbury. [In the event, his brother Henry William Bunbury predeceased him, and his nephew Henry Edward Bunbury, who also has an entry in the ODNB as 'army officer' succeeded him as 7th baronet].

2. In 1769, Lauchlin Macleane, John Stuart, Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, Clotworthy Upton and George Ridge, who owned shares in the La Tante, Saint Cloud (Saint Cloux), Le Grand Bras, Chantilly, Saint Maur and two other plantations in Grenada, and Balamonly [sic] and 11 other estates on Dominica issued a power of attorney to the London merchants Simond and Hankey.

3. Thomas C. Dunbury [sic] appeared in 1782 among the signatories of 'The Humble address and petition of the planters and merchants whose names are hereunto subscribed, on behalf of themselves, and others interested in the British West India Islands: Your petitioners, alarmed by the inefficacy of their former applications to Your Majesty's Ministers, humbly implore Your Majesty to enforce and extend the present assurances they have given us, and to direct, that without delay, reinforcements, naval and military adequate to the permanent defence of Your Majesty's West India Islands, may be sent out, so that by the blessing of Providence, those most valuable possessions may still be preserved for the British Empire.'

John Randall, ‘Bunbury, Sir (Thomas) Charles, sixth baronet (1740–1821)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39788, accessed 19 Dec 2015] (the entry is silent on his slave-ownership); http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/bunbury-thomas-charles-1740-1821 (this entry notes his concern about Grenada 1779-1783, and that on 27/02/1782: 'he admitted he spoke as owner of property on the island'; http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/bunbury-sir-thomas-charles-1740-1821; http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw62417/Sir-Thomas-Charles-Bunbury-6th-Bt-Symptoms-of-deep-thinking-sinking-from-thought-to-thought-a-vast-profund?LinkID=mp18935&role=sit&rNo=1 [all accessed 19/12/2015].

1. PROB 11/1644/198; John Randall, ‘Bunbury, Sir (Thomas) Charles, sixth baronet (1740–1821)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39788, accessed 19 Dec 2015]; John Sweetman, ‘Bunbury, Sir Henry Edward, seventh baronet (1778–1860)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3936, accessed 19 Dec 2015]. In turn Sir Henry Edward Bunbury was succeeded by his sons, the 'naturalist and diarist' Sir Charles James Fox Bunbury 8th bart. (Janet Browne, ‘Bunbury, Sir Charles James Fox, eighth baronet (1809–1886)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2011 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38298, accessed 19 Dec 2015]) and Sir Edward Herbert Bunbury 9th bart., 'classical author and scholar' Richard J. A. Talbert, ‘Bunbury, Sir Edward Herbert, ninth baronet (1811–1895)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/45514, accessed 19 Dec 2015].

2. The Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection at Hamilton College, M196.

3. 1782 Whitehall Evening Post, London, 3 January, transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1782PetitiontotheKing.htm