DELABERE, Richard (c.1559-1636), of Lincoln's Inn, London.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1559, 2nd s. of Kennard Delabere, and bro. of John. educ. St. Mary Hall, Oxf. 1575; L. Inn from Lyon’s Inn 1580, called 1589. m. Margaret, da. and h. of John Newman of Worcs.

Offices Held

Attorney-gen. Brec., Card., Carm., Pemb., Rad. 1595-1613; bencher, L. Inn 1603, Summer reader 1607, keeper of black bk. 1611.

Biography

There was a double connexion between Delabere and the borough of Cricklade to account for his return there in 1586. His own family were neighbours of the Brydges, patrons of the borough, and his fellow MP, John Higford, was a personal friend. His membership of the 1586 Parliament left no trace upon the records but in 1601, when he was attorney-general of several Welsh counties, Delabere was returned to Parliament by the bailiffs of Cardigan without a precept from the sheriff, a device that led one Dr. Aubrey (not William), who had been chosen at a previous election held at Aberystwyth, and who had had his return signed by the sheriff, to complain—as it appears unsuccessfully—to the committee of privileges. During the course of the proceedings Sir Edward Hoby said as between 'the one a civil, the other a common lawyer, that he might say to them as the Duke of Milan said, "it is no matter whether goes first the hangman or the thief".' In 1604 the tables were turned when Delabere, returned at Aberystwyth through the partiality of the sheriff Richard Price II*, was unseated in favour of William Bradshaw, an alderman of Cardigan, who had been chosen by the bailiffs of that town.

Delabere inherited considerable estates in Gloucestershire, and in 1608 purchased the manor of Southam from Robert Cecil*, Earl of Salisbury. He died in 1636 and was buried at Bishop's Cleeve.

Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 49; Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. Trans. iv. 21; xxviii. 55-7, 250, 349; xxix. 235-9; l. 295, 298, 299, 304-5; Atkins, Glos. 185; CSP Dom. 1595-7, p. 215; 1611-18, p. 209; Flenley. Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 239; D'Ewes, 628; CJ, i. 170; PCC 81 Huddleston, 33 Fenner.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: W.J.J.

Notes