Sir Henry Wood, 1st Baronet

Sir Henry Wood, 1st Baronet (1597 - 25 May 1671) was an English courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1661 to 1671.

Wood was the son of Thomas Wood, of Hackney, Middlesex, and his wife Susanna Cranmer, daughter of a merchant of London, and was baptised at Hackney on 17 October 1597. His father was Sergeant of the Pastry and died on 18 May 1649. Wood was Clerk of the Spicery in the Royal Household. He purchased the estate of Loudham Park in Ufford and other lands in Suffolk, producing " a rental of nearly £4,500 a year.^[1]

Wood attended the Court at Oxford in 1643 and was knighted there on 16 April 1644. In that year accompanied the Queen, Henrietta Maria, to France, as Treasurer to her Household, an office he retained till his death. He compounded on 31 May 1649 and was fined £273 on 15 June 1649. In about 1657 he was created a baronet by Charles II, when in exile. At the Restoration he was made a Clerk of the Green Cloth. He attended Queen Catharine on her voyage from Lisbon in 1661, and was subsequently a member of her Council. In 1661, he was elected Member of Parliament for Hythe.^[1]

Wood died at the age of about 73 and the Baronetcy became extinct. He was buried at Ufford on 31 May 1671.^[1]

Wood married firstly in about 1630, Anne Webb, probably sister of Anthony Webb, Warden of the Merchant Taylors' Company from 1658 to 1660. She died without issued and was buried at Charenton, near Paris on 9 June 1648. He married secondly, at Paris in November 1651, Mary Gardiner daughter of Sir Thomas Gardiner, of Cuddesdon, Oxfordshire and his wife Rebecca Childe. She was Maid of Honour to Queen Henrietta Maria and one of the four Dressers to Queen Catharine, She died of smallpox aged 38 on 17 March 1671 and was buried in Westminster Abbey on1 April 1671. Their daughter Mary died ten years later of smallpox, when she was scarcely 17, and was also buried in Westminster Abbey. Wood was the brother of Thomas Wood, Bishop of Lichfield.^[1]

References

1. George Edward Cokayne Complete Baronetage, Volume 3 1900