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He was born in Arbury , Warwickshire, the 5th baronet of Arbury and of Harefield in Middlesex. He was educated at University College, Oxford, and contributed greatly to the university throughout the remainder of his life. From 1741 until 1747, he served as MP for Middlesex, and in 1750, he began a 30-year tenure as MP for the University of Oxford. He is most remembered as the founder of the Newdigate Prize and as a collector of antiques, a number of which he donated to the university. The prize for poetryPoetry is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. It consists largely of oral or literary works in which language is used in a manner that is felt by its use helped make the names of many illustrious writers.