{{Short description|English brewer and Whig politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Robert Hucks''' (1699–1745) of Clifton Hampden near Abingdon, and Aldenham House, Hertfordshire, was an English brewer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1741.
==Early life== Hucks was baptised on 5 March 1699, the eldest surviving son of William Hucks brewer of St Giles-in-the-Fields and his wife Elizabeth Selwood, daughter of Robert Selwood of Abingdon, Berkshire. He was admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge on 6 January 1717 and at Inner Temple on 11 January 1720.<ref name=CU>{{acad|id= HKS716-|name=Hucks, Robert}}</ref> He married Sarah Coghill, daughter of Henry Coghill of Pennes Place, in Aldenham on 22 December 1730.<ref name = HOP>{{cite web| url =https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/hucks-robert-1699-1745 | title= HUCKS, Robert (1699-1745), of Clifton Hampden, nr. Abingdon, and Aldenham, Herts.| publisher= History of Parliament Online| accessdate = 28 October 2018}}</ref> She brought him Aldenham House, which was built on the estate of Penns Place.<ref>[https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000902 Historic England - Aldenham House]</ref>
==Career== thumb|Aldenham House drawn in 1882 Hucks was elected as Member of Parliament for Abingdon at the 1722 general election and consistently voted with the government.<ref name=HOP/> In 1726, he purchased Clifton manor from the trustees of the profligate Edmund Dunch.<ref name=BHO2>{{cite web |url = https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol7/pp16-27 |title= 'Parishes: Clifton Hampden', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 7, Dorchester and Thame Hundreds, ed. Mary Lobel (London, 1962), pp. 16-27.| author= |publisher= British History Online| accessdate = 6 May 2019 }}</ref> He was re-elected in a contest at the 1727 general election. In 1733 he was appointed Recorder of Wallingford. He faced another contested election in 1734 and was elected again as MP for Abingdon.<ref name=HOP/>
Hucks was an enemy of religious establishments and in 1736 he opposed a grant to repair the Henry VII Chapel and promoted a mortmain bill to prevent land being alienated to religious and charitable institutions. In 1737 he resigned as a councillor of the Georgia Trustees over plans to endow land for a church there.<ref name=HOP/> He succeeded his father to the brewery in 1740<ref name=BHO>{{cite web |url = https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol2/pp168-178 |title= 'Industries: Brewing', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 2, General; Ashford, East Bedfont With Hatton, Feltham, Hampton With Hampton Wick, Hanworth, Laleham, Littleton, ed. William Page (London, 1911), pp. 168-178| author= |publisher= British History Online| accessdate = 6 May 2019 }}</ref> and assumed his father's office as King’s brewer. He did not stand at the 1741 general election. In 1743 he presented the Treasury with a petition on behalf of London victuallers which sought the repeal of the Pot Act, which imposed a levy on publicans. He became treasurer of the Foundling Hospital in 1744.<ref name=HOP/>
==Death and legacy== Hucks died aged 46 on 21 December 1745 and was buried on 30 December at St John the Baptist, Aldenham, where there is a monumental inscription. He and his wife had two sons and six daughters.<ref name=HOP/> Clifton passed to his son Robert who became a lunatic, and on his death it passed by inheritance to Anne and Sarah Noyes, nieces of Robert Hucks.<ref name=BHO2/>
==External links== *[http://www.speel.me.uk/herts/aldenhamch.htm Hertfordshire Church Monuments Aldenham Church, St John the Baptist, in Hertfordshire]
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|gb}} {{s-bef | before = James Jennings }} {{s-title | title = Member of Parliament for Abingdon | years = 1722–1741 }} {{s-aft | after = John Wright }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hucks, Robert}} Category:1699 births Category:1745 deaths Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Members of the Inner Temple Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Abingdon Category:British MPs 1722–1727 Category:British MPs 1727–1734 Category:British MPs 1734–1741 Category:British brewers