Charles Drake Garrard


Charles Drake Garrard, born Charles Drake was a British land-owner and Member of Parliament for Amersham between 1796 and 1805.

Early life and family

Charles Drake was baptised on 23 December 1755, the fourth son of William Drake, a long-standing Member of Parliament for Amersham, and his wife, Elizabeth, a daughter of John Raworth of London, a director of the South Seas Company.
Drake inherited the estate of his cousin Sir Samuel Garrard, fifth Baronet, in 1767, and added to his surname that of Garrard. He married on 8 June 1790, Anne Barne, daughter of Miles Barne of Sotterley, Suffolk, and his second wife Mary Thornhill, a daughter of George Thornhill of Diddington, Huntingdonshire. Together, they had one son and five daughters:
He was commissioned a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Hertfordshire Militia of 1794.

Member of Parliament and later life

The borough of Amersham was a "Rotten Borough", in the pocket the Garrard family. When William Drake retired at the 1796 election, Garrard stepped up as the family's representative. An inactive member, Garrard is not known to have spoken or voted in Parliament during his tenure as Member for Amersham. He retired and his nephew, Thomas Tywhitt Drake, took his place as Member.
After retiring from Parliament, he served as a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber from 1806 to 1813, and he died on 17 July 1817.

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