Sir Frederick Seager Hunt, 1st Baronet (27 April 1837 – 21 January 1904)[1] was a British Conservative Party politician, and a prominent distiller.
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Frederick Seager Hunt was born on 27 April 1837 in Chippenham, Wiltshire, the eldest son of James Hunt and Eliza Seager. Eliza Seager was the eldest daughter of the distiller James Lys Seager.
He attended school at St. Peter's College, Westminster.
Seager Evans and Co. was founded by Hunt's Grandfather James Lys Seager and William Evans. In 1864 Hunt became a partner, and in 1872 the prior partnership with Richard and Christopher Wilson was dissolved, leaving just Frederick and James as partners in the business. James Lys Seager died a year later, making Frederick the sole proprietor from then on.
During the time Hunt was involved with the company, the distillery was sited at Millbank in London, although it later moved to Deptford, in the 1920s. Their most famous product was Seagers Gin.
A caricature of Sir Frederick was included in Vanity Fair, dated May 18, 1893. The accompanying biographical passage read as follows:
STATESMEN. No. 613
SIR FREDERICK SEAGER HUNT, BART.
JAMES EDWARD HUNT of Cromwell Road (who was quite an eminent railway contractor) married Eliza, daughter of James Lys Seager, Esquire, and had issue two sons and three daughters; of whom the eldest (who is the first Baronet of this ancient family) was born at Chippenham five-and-fifty years ago. They taught him scholastically at Westminster, and more broadly in India, where he travelled in his youth; and among other things he acquired, or developed, a capacity for business that has since made him in more than one way. For he is now the head of the firm Seager, Evans and Co., of Millbank (which was founded by his maternal grandfather), a director of Earle's Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, a Governor of the Westminster Bluecoat School, Chairman of a big Tory organisation and of the United Westminster Almshouses, a Deputy-Lieutenant of the County of London, and Patron of the living of Charmouth, in Dorset. He is also one of the founders of the Primrose League as well as one of Lord Salisbury's Baronets of last year; and having once been defeated for Marylebone in 1880, he has now gone back to Westminster, where he has most constitutionally represented the Western Division of that district for the last eight years.
Although he is now a rich man, he still goes to business daily. He is something of a sportsman, for he is a member of the Four-in-Hand Club, who is very fond of driving four horses at once, and President of the North of the Thames Licensed Victuallers' Cricket Club; which is the biggest amateur thing of its kind in England. Yet he no longer plays cricket. He has done more service to his Party than is ordinarily represented by Baronetcy; for not long ago he was royally "dined" and rewarded by a spontaneous presentation in recognition of his really great services in organising the London Boroughs. He is no orator, and when he is (very occasionally) moved to speak he shows the swaying nervousness that becomes the honest, modest man. He is very popular with the "Trade"; he has a cheery, inspiring face, and he is the husband of a very attractive cousin.
He has shown that he is an inveterate Tory by becoming member of no fewer than four Tory clubs; yet he is so good a fellow that, even in Westminster bear-garden, no decent man has found a word to say against him. He is generous; and, despite the fact he is a distiller, he is a gentleman. He knows a good cigar when he gets it.
Sir Frederick was elected at the 1885 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Marleybone West.[2] He was re-elected in 1886 and 1892, but at the 1895 general election he stood instead in Maidstone, where he was returned unopposed.[3] He resigned his seat in 1898 by becoming Steward of the Manor of Northstead.[4]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Marleybone West 1885 – 1895 |
Succeeded by Sir Horace Farquhar |
| Preceded by Fiennes Cornwallis |
Member of Parliament for Maidstone 1895 – 1898 |
Succeeded by Fiennes Cornwallis |