Thomas Walsingham (died 1669)

Sir Thomas Walsingham (c. 1589 - April 1669) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1640. He supported the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War.

Life

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Walsingham was the son of Thomas Walsingham (literary patron) and his wife Lady Audrey Shelton. He was knighted at Royston on 26 November 1613.[1] In 1614 he was elected Member of Parliament for Poole. He was elected MP for Rochester in 1621 and again in 1628 and held the seat until 1629 when King Charles I decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.[2] He was made vice-admiral of Kent in 1627.

In April 1640, Walsingham was re-elected MP for Rochester for the Short Parliament and again in November 1640 for the Long Parliament when he sat until 1653, surviving Pride's Purge.[2] He sold the family property of Scadbury in around 1655.

Walsingham died in 1669 and was buried at Chislehurst on 10 April 1669.

Family

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Walsingham married twice, his first wife being Elizabeth Manwood, daughter of Sir Peter Manwood, who died giving birth to a daughter in January 1616.[3]

References

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  1. ^ Knights of England
  2. ^ a b Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
  3. ^ Thomas Birch & Folkestone Williams, Court and Times of James the First, vol. 1 (London, 1849), p. 388.

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain"Walsingham, Edmund". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Parliament of England
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Poole
1614
With: Sir Walter Erle
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Rochester
1620–1629
With: Henry Clerke 1620-1624
Maximilian Dallison 1624
Henry Clerke 1625-1629
Parliament suspended until 1640
Parliament suspended since 1629 Member of Parliament for Rochester
1640–1653
With: John Clerke 1640
Richard Lee 1640–1648
Rochester not represented in Barebones Parliament