Sir John Pakington, who, having married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Keys, died in 1688, and was in turn succeeded by his only child, Sir John Pakington, the fourth baronet, who, when only nineteen years of age, became M.P. for Worcestershire, and so remained, with one exception, when he voluntarily withdrew himself, to the time of his death. He was “a strenuous asserter of the rights and liberties of the country,” and in 1702 preferred that remarkable complaint against the Bishop of Worcester and his son for unduly interfering in the elections, which resulted in the Bishop being removed by the Queen from his office of almoner, and other proceedings being taken. Sir John married, first, Frances, daughter of Sir Henry Parker; and, secondly, Hester, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Herbert Perrott. By his first marriage he had issue two sons, who died young, and two daughters, one of whom married Viscount Tracy. By his second wife, Hester Perrott, Sir John had a son, Sir Herbert Perrott Pakington, by whom, on his death in 1727, he was succeeded.
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Sir Herbert Perrott Pakington, fifth baronet, M.P. for Worcestershire, married, in 1721, Elizabeth, daughter of John Conyers, Esq., of Walthamstow, and by her had issue two sons—John and Herbert Perrott, each of whom enjoyed the baronetcy—and two daughters. Dying in 1748, he was succeeded by his son—
Sir John Pakington, as sixth baronet, who married Mary, daughter of Henry Bray, Esq., of Bromyard, but, dying in 1762 without issue, was succeeded by his brother—
Sir Herbert Perrott Pakington, as seventh baronet. Sir Herbert married, in 1759, Elizabeth, daughter of Cæsar Hawkins, Esq., and widow of Herbert Wylde, Esq., of Ludlow, and by her had issue two sons and four daughters—viz. John, his successor; Thomas, who died without issue; Dorothy; Anne; Louisa; and Elizabeth, who married William Russell, Esq., of Powick, Worcestershire, by which marriage she had an only son, the present Lord Hampton, who, as will be shown, ultimately succeeded to the estates. Sir Herbert Perrott Pakington died in 1795, and was succeeded, as eighth and last baronet, by his son—
Sir John Pakington, D.C.L. This gentleman was born in 1760, and died without issue, and unmarried, in 1830, when the title became extinct, and the estates passed to his nephew, John Somerset Russell, Esq. (son of his sister, Elizabeth Pakington, by her marriage with William Russell, Esq., of Powick), who at once assumed the family name of Pakington in lieu of that of Russell, and became John Somerset Pakington, Esq., and is the present noble owner of Westwood.
The Right Hon. Lord Hampton—the first peer of the family—was born in 1799, and, as we have stated, is the son of William Russell, Esq., by his wife, Elizabeth Pakington. He succeeded, as John Somerset Russell, to the estates of his uncle, Sir John Pakington, in 1830, and assumed the patronymic of Pakington in lieu of his own name of Russell. He was educated at Eton and at Oriel College, Oxford. In 1837 he was elected M.P. for Droitwich, which town he continued to represent until 1874, when, after nearly forty years of able, useful, and faithful public servitude, he was defeated at the general election. In 1846 he was created a baronet, by the name of Sir John Somerset Pakington, of Westwood Park. In 1852 Sir John held office as Secretary of State for the Colonies; in 1858-9 was a member of the Committee of Council for Education; in 1858-9, and again in 1866-7, was first Lord of the Admiralty; and in 1867-8 was Secretary of State for War. In 1874 he was created Baron Hampton, of Hampton Lovett and of Westwood, in the county of Worcester, in the peerage of the United Kingdom. Lord Hampton, who is a Privy Councillor, a G.C.B., an Hon. D.C.L. of Oxford, an Elder Brother of the Trinity House, a Magistrate, for many years Chairman of the County Quarter Sessions, and Deputy Lieutenant of the county, has married three times: first, in 1822, Mary (who died in 1843), daughter of Moreton Aglionby Slaney, Esq., by whom he has issue living one son, the Hon. John Slaney Pakington (heir to the title and estates), who was born in 1826, and married, in 1849, the Lady Diana Boyle, daughter of the Earl of Glasgow; secondly, in 1844, Augusta Anne (who died in 1848), daughter of the Right Rev. George Murray, D.D., Bishop of Rochester, by whom he has issue living one son, the Hon. Herbert Perrott Murray Pakington, born in 1848; thirdly, in 1851, Augusta, daughter of Thomas Champion de Crespigny, Esq., and widow of Colonel Davis, M.P., of Elmley Park, Worcestershire, by whom he has no issue.
Lord Hampton is by no means entirely, or even mainly, indebted for renown to the high positions he has occupied, although they are among the very highest. There have been, of late years, few projects designed and calculated to benefit mankind to which he has not been, in some way, a contributor; foremost, indeed, he has always been in every good work that may lessen suffering, extend social advantages, and advance the cause of education and religion. The descendant and representative of a race that has for centuries given to England true patriots, in the best sense of the word, he has been a powerful benefactor wherever his influence could reach.