Sir Henry Watkin Dashwood, 3rd Baronet (30 August 1745 – 10 June 1828) was a Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) in the British Parliament. He was the eldest surviving son of Sir James Dashwood, 2nd Baronet, and the brother in law of John Stewart, 7th Earl of Galloway

Earl of Galloway

Earl of Galloway is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1623 for Alexander Stewart, 1st Lord Garlies, with remainder to his heirs male bearing the name and arms of Stewart. He had already been created Lord Garlies in the Peerage of Scotland in 1607, with remainder to the heirs...

. He inherited the baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

cy on 10 November 1779.

He represented Wigtown Burghs 1775-1780. He was seated following an election petition after the 1774 general election. Dashwood was the fourth Englishman to represent Wigtown Burghs in Parliament. He voted in support of Lord North in the 1770s. He failed to be elected for Canterbury

Canterbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Canterbury is a county constituency which has been represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 1918. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 in 1780. As a friend of the heir to the Duke of Marlborough he was elected MP for the pocket borough of Woodstock

Woodstock (UK Parliament constituency)

Woodstock, sometimes called New Woodstock, was a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom. It comprised the town of Woodstock in the county of Oxfordshire and the surrounding countryside and villages, and elected two Members of Parliament from its re-enfranchisement in 1553 until 1832...

 and represented it 1784-1820.

In 1775 his debts had amounted to the enormous sum of £25,000 and his father had to pay them. After he came into his inheritance Dashwood sold most of the family estate to pay further debts.

He held the (unpaid) appointment of Gentleman of the Privy Chamber from March 1783 until his death. No more lucrative office was bestowed on the free-spending Baronet.

Dashwood tried to persuade William Pitt the Younger

William Pitt the Younger

William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...

to give him a peerage in 1794, as he was a supporter of the government. Unhappily for Dashwood no preferment was forthcoming.