Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hussey, Richard
HUSSEY, RICHARD (1715?–1770), politician, born probably in 1715, though Polwhele (Reminiscences, ii. 135) fixes the date two years earlier, was the son of John Hussey, town clerk (1722-37) of Truro, Cornwall, by his wife Miss Gregor. On 17 Oct. 1730 he matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, but did not graduate; and in 1742 was called to the bar at the Middle Temple (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886, ii. 720). He represented St. Mawes, Cornwall, in the parliament of 1761-8, and East Looe in the same county in that of 1768, retaining his seat until his death. After the accession of George III he received a silk gown (Foss, Lives of the Judges, viii. 222), and was appointed attorney-general to the queen. He was also auditor of Greenwich Hospital, counsel to the admiralty and navy, and counsel to the East India Company. In 1768 he was chosen auditor of the duchy of Cornwall (Royal Kalendar, 1769, p.88). As a politician Hussey won the respect of both parties by his integrity, fairness, and courtesy. Chatham thought highly of him (Stanhope, Hist. of England, v. Append, p. x). Lord Camden was his friend. Horace Walpole is never tired of eulogising his blameless life and talents as a debater. In the debates on Wilkes's complaint of breach of privilege he took a prominent part, especially in the debate on 24 Nov. 1763, when, says Walpole (Letters, ed. Cunningham, iv. 136), he 'was against the court, and spoke with great spirit and true whig spirit.' In the debate on the Stamp Act on 21 Feb. 1766 he advocated its repeal as an innovation upon what the colonies considered their usages and customs (Correspondence of Lord Chatham, ii. 394). However, in the debate arising out of the Massachusetts Bay petition on 26 Jan. 1769, he expressed himself strongly in favour of laying an internal tax upon America as the only practical way of forcing that country to own the supreme power of Great Britain (Cavendish, Debates, i.197-8). On the defeat of the ministry in January 1770 Hussey resigned the attorney-generalship to the queen (Walpole, Letters, v. 220). He died at Truro in the following September (Gent. Mag. 1770, 441).
[Correspondence of Lord Chatham, iii. Ill; Walpole's Last Ten Years of George II, 1832, i.375; Walpole's Memoirs of George III, 1845, i.326, 370-3, 377, ii. 60-1, 272, 279-80, 301, 379, iii. 161, 203, 208 n., 315, iv. 49-50; Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, iii. 453, iv. 136, v. 220; Cavendish's Debates, i. 197-8, 246-7, 403; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 260-1.]