Charles Brett (MP)

For other people named Charles Brett, see Charles Brett (disambiguation).

Charles Brett (c. 1715 – 10 February 1799) was a British Member of Parliament.

Coming from a naval family, Brett was at first a naval officer, and in 1755 was in charge of Portsmouth dockyard. After inheriting property on his marriage to Elizabeth Hooker, granddaughter and heir of Sir William Hooker in 1753, he retired from the navy and eventually went into politics.

A follower of Lord Howe, he was Paymaster of the Navy from 1766 to 1770, and he entered Parliament in 1768 as member for Lostwithiel. He resigned that seat in 1776, being immediately returned instead as the government-sponsored MP for Sandwich, a constituency with a strong naval connection, but from 1777 he voted consistently with the opposition, and in 1780 lost his seat when defeated by two government-backed candidates.

After the fall of Lord North's government in 1782, Brett was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty, and returned to the Commons as the Rockingham government's candidate at Dartmouth (another constituency with strong links with the navy). He was a Lord of the Admiralty from April 1782 to April 1783, leaving office on the fall of Shelburne's administration, and once again under William Pitt the Younger from December 1783 until 1788.

References

Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Viscount Beauchamp James Edward Colleton	Member of Parliament for Lostwithiel with Sir Henry Cavendish 1768-1774 Viscount Fairford 1774-1776 1768–1776	Succeeded by Viscount Fairford Thomas Potter
Preceded by Philip Stephens William Hey	Member of Parliament for Sandwich with Philip Stephens 1776–1780	Succeeded by Philip Stephens Sir Richard Sutton
Preceded by Arthur Holdsworth The Viscount Howe	Member of Parliament for Dartmouth with Arthur Holdsworth 1782–1784	Succeeded by Arthur Holdsworth Richard Hopkins
Preceded by Philip Stephens Sir Richard Sutton	Member of Parliament for Sandwich with Philip Stephens 1784–1790	Succeeded by Philip Stephens Sir Horatio Mann

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