Isaac Martin Rebow

Rebow was born on 28 November 1731, the son of Isaac Lemyng Rebow, MP and his wife Mary Martin, daughter of Captain Matthew Martin, MP. He was educated at Eton College from 1745 to 1748 and was admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge on 8 December 1748. He was awarded BA in 1753.^[1][2] He succeeded his father in 1735, inheriting Wivenhoe Park near Colchester, and in 1759 commissioned Thomas Reynolds to build a house there.

In the 1754 general election Rebow stood for Parliament at Colchester and was defeated by a narrow margin.^[1] However the poll was conducted in a scandalous manner and Rebow was seated as Member of Parliament on petition in 1755. The main local issue was the loss of the Borough's charter and the campaign to regain it. The displaced member Charles Gray was chastened by the experience but in the 1761 general election they agreed to cooperate and were returned unopposed. They managed to obtain a new charter in 1763 in the same form as the previous one and in it Rebow was named as Recorder of Colchester. He held the post until his death. Rebow and Gray oversaw almost twenty years of compromise and in a contest at Colchester in the 1768 general election they saw off a third candidate, Rebow topping the poll.^[3]