Winston Churchill (1620–1688)

Arms of Sir Winston Churchill: sable a lion rampant argent on a canton of the second a cross gules^[1]

Sir Winston Churchill FRS (18 April 1620 – 26 March 1688), known as the Cavalier Colonel, was an English soldier, historian, and politician.^[2] He was the father of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, as well as an ancestor of his 20th-century namesake, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.

Life

Churchill was the son of John Churchill of Dorset, a lawyer, and his wife Sarah Winston, daughter of Sir Henry Winston. Winston Churchill was educated at St John's College, Oxford, but left university without taking a degree. Churchill was a fervent Royalist through his life and fought and was wounded in the Civil War as a Captain in the King's Horse and, after the Royalists were defeated, was forced to pay a recompense fee of £446 (equivalent to around £44,600 in the present). After the Restoration he sat as a Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis from 1661 to 1679 and for Lyme Regis from 1685 to 1688.^[3] Churchill was also a Commissioner of the Irish Court of Claims and Explanations between 1662 and 1668 and a Junior Clerk Comptroller to the Board of Green Cloth from 1664 to 1679. He was knighted in 1664 and made a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He also published a history of the kings of England, entitled Divi Britannica; being a remark upon the Lives of all the Kings of this Isle, from the year of the World 2855 until the year of Grace 1660.

Churchill died in March 1688, at age 67.

Family

In 1643 Churchill married Elizabeth Drake, daughter of Sir John Drake (d. 25 August 1636) and his wife Eleanor Boteler, daughter of John Boteler, 1st Baron Boteler of Brantfield and maternal niece of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.
They had eleven children, seven sons and four daughters, of whom only six survived infancy; son Mountjoy died in infancy, while Winston died at the Battle of Solebay in 1672 aged 20,^[4] and Jasper attended Queen's College, Oxford,^[5] was commissioned in the Duke of York's Regiment in 1678^[6] but appears to have died soon thereafter. Theobald also attended Queen's College, took holy orders, became Chaplain in his brother's regiment (Churchill's Dragoons) in 1683, but died in 1685 at age 22.^[7]

Four of their children gained distinction :

• The aforementioned John became a famous military commander and was created Duke of Marlborough;
• Charles (2 February 1656 – 1714) became a General in the Army under his elder brother and married Mary Gould (later married to the 2nd Earl of Abingdon);
• George became an Admiral in the Royal Navy and never married;
• Arabella became a mistress of King James II and mother of four of his children.

A common theme is rather obvious with Winston Churchill's (surviving) children. Arabella became mistress of James, Duke of York in about 1665. In 1667, on most accounts, James obtained a commission for John in the Guards and, in 1675, John was commissioned Captain in the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment. Charles was commissioned Ensign (in 1674) and Captain (1679) in the Duke of York's Regiment. George although pursuing a mainly Admiralty career, was commissioned Ensign (1676) and Lieutenant (1678) in the Duke of York's Regiment. Jasper was commissioned Ensign in 1878, in the Duke of York's Regiment. Theobald, the cleric, stood out: he was commissioned Chaplain in November 1683, but in the King's Own Royal Regiment of Dragoons commanded then by John, Lord Churchill. Fifteen months after that, James, Duke of York, was king.

References

1. Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.747.
2.  "Churchill, Winston". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
3. History of Parliament Online - Churchill, Winston
4. ADM 33/91
5. "Oxford University Alumni".
6. Dalton's English Army List and Commission Register 1.
7. Holmes, Richard. Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius. HarperPress. 2008.

Further reading

•  Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Churchill, Winston". Dictionary of National Biography 10. London: Smith, Elder & Co.