Robert Packer (1678–1731), of Shellingford House and

Donnington Castle Donnington Castle is a ruined medieval castle, situated in the small village of Donnington, just north of the town of Newbury in the English county of Berkshire. It was founded by Sir Richard Abberbury the Elder in 1386 and was bought by Tho ...

House in

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, was a British politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

from 1712 to 1731. Packer was baptized on 10 February 1678, the only son of John Packer of Shellingford and his wife Elizabeth Stephens, daughter of Richard Stephens of Eastington, Gloucestershire. In 1687 he succeeded to his father's property. He married Mary Winchcombe, daughter of

Sir Henry Winchcombe, 2nd Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part o ...

, and his brother-in-law was Henry St John who married his wife's sister Frances Winchcombe. In November 1701 it is reported that Packer lost the thumb of his left hand in an accident with a gun. Packer was well established in the county, and was appointed a deputy-lieutenant in 1703 and served as

High Sheriff of Berkshire The High Sheriff of Berkshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'. The title of High Sheriff#United King ...

for the year 1708 to 1709. When St. John was raised to the peerage as Viscount Bolingbroke in 1712, Packer was returned unopposed Member of Parliament for

at the ensuing by-election on 23 July 1712. He was co-opted to present an address from the county to the Queen before he had technically taken his seat in the House of Commons. He voted on 18 June 1713 for the French commerce bill. At the 1713 general election he was returned unopposed and was classed as a Tory. He was returned unopposed at the 1715 general election and elected in contests in

1722 Events January–March * January 27 – Daniel Defoe's novel '' Moll Flanders'' is published anonymously in London. * February 10 – The Battle of Cape Lopez begins off of the coast of West Africa (and present-day Gabon), ...

and

1727 Events January–March * January 1 – (December 21, 1726 O.S.) Spain's ambassador to Great Britain demands that the British return Gibraltar after accusing Britain of violating the terms of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Britain ...

. He voted consistently against the Government. Packer died on 4 April 1731. He had five sons, of whom one predeceased him, and one daughter. His eldest son

Winchcombe Howard Packer Winchcombe Howard Packer (20 November 1702 – 1746), of Donnington and Shellingford, Berkshire, was a British Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1731 to 1746. Packer was the eldest son of Robert Packer of Shellingford and Do ...

inherited his seat in parliament and the Winchcombe inheritance which he finally gained possession of in about 1733, after an ongoing dispute with Bolingbroke.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Packer, Robert 1678 births 1731 deaths High sheriffs of Berkshire Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Berkshire British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1713–1715 British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734 People from Vale of White Horse (district) People from Shaw-cum-Donnington