Member of Parliament and public service
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Sir William Manners, Bt., was attempting to take control of the borough of Grantham, which had previously been controlled by two land-owning aristocrats, the Duke of Rutland and Lord Brownlow; Manners's grandfather, Lord William Manners, had purchased the manor, his son accumulated much wealth, and Sir William purchased houses in Grantham and worked to be returned as a member of parliament for the Borough. Welby's father, who was Lord of the Manor of nearby Denton, stood to oppose Manners in 1802, being supported by Rutland and Brownlow, and was elected, serving until 1806. After he declined to stand again, a compromise was formed between Manners and the land-owners, but it did not last and, by the time the 1807 elections began, Manners was hoping to control the Borough's seats in Parliament.
Welby stood to oppose Manners, as his father had done before him, and, like his father, was elected (finishing second, with 411 votes). As a Member, he was an infrequent voter and is not known to have made any speeches; he also applied for leaves of absence in 1808 and 1812. When he did vote, it was generally with the Government, voting, for instance, in 1810 on the side of the Government over an inquiry into the British Walcheren Campaign against the Dutch in 1809. In the borough, Welby remained opposed to the imposition of Manners and, shocked at Rutland's decision to sell him land in return for hunting rights, he barred Rutland from hunting on the Welby estates.
At the 1812 election, Welby was able to gain the support of enough of the borough's freemen and land-owners in the corporation, and secured a compromise with Manners, allowing for him to be re-elected. Again, he voted infrequently, most notably with the Government against Catholic relief in 1813. In 1815, his father died and he inherited the Baronetcy and his estates, after which time he attended the House less regularly. He was re-elected in 1818, but declined to stand in 1820 and never returned to the House. In the years following, he remained somewhat active in local politics and became Sheriff of Lincolnshire for a year beginning in 1823.
