Thomas Walsingham (MP)

Sir Thomas Walsingham (died 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

Walsingham was the son of Sir Thomas Walsingham and his wife Katherine Gunter, daughter of John Gunter of Chilworth, Surrey, and Brecknock in Wales. 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

Walsingham married twice, his first wife being Elizabeth Manwood, daughter of Sir Peter Manwood.

References

1. Knights of England
2. 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.

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