Thomas Coventry, 2nd Baron Coventry

Memorial to the 2nd Baron Coventry in the church at Croome Court

Thomas Coventry, 2nd Baron Coventry (1606 – 27 October 1661) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1626 and 1629 and was subsequently a member of the House of Lords. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War.

Coventry was the son of Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry and his first wife Sarah Sebright daughter of John Sebright. In 1626, he was elected Member of Parliament for Droitwich. In 1628 he was elected MP for Worcestershire and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years.^[1]

Coventry was appointed one of the Council of the Marches of Wales on 2 May 1633. He became a Compensation Commissioner for the Avon on 9 March 1637. On 14 January 1640, he succeeded to the title Baron Coventry on the death of his father. He was joint Commissioner of Array in Worcestershire in 1642, and signed the Engagement with the King at York. In 1642 he defended Worcester against the Parliamentary army, but was defeated by Col. Sandys. On 15 January 1644, the East India Company were ordered to freeze the money and goods he had in the Company. On 15 April, he was assessed at £3,000 and on 20 September he was assessed at £1,500 by the House of Lords. On 11 April 1645 all his goods and chattels in his house at Westminster were to be seized, inventoried and sold in order to pay off the fine of £1,500.

Coventry died in London at the age of about 54. In his will, dated 31 August 1657, he left £500 in charity to the poor of Evesham.

Coventry married Mary Craven, daughter of Sir William Craven, former Lord Mayor of London, on 2 April 1627. His younger son Thomas was created Earl of Coventry in 1697.

References

1. W R Williams Parliamentary History of the County of Worcester