CORBET, Miles (1595-1662), of Lincoln's Inn, London and Great Yarmouth, Norf.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010
Available from Cambridge University Press

Constituency

Dates

1640 (Apr.)
1640 (Nov.)
1660 - 18 May 1660

Family and Education

b.1595, 2nd s. of Sir Thomas Corbet of Sprowston, Norf., and Anne, da. of Edward Barrett of Belhouse Hall, Aveley, Essex; bro. of Sir John, 1st bt.*1 educ. Christ’s, Camb. 1612;2 Thavies’ Inn;3 L. Inn 1615, called 1623.4 m. Mary (d. aft. 1662), da. of John Eldred, alderman, of London and Great Saxham, Suff.5 exec. 19 Apr. 1662. sig. Miles Corbet(t).

Offices Held

Recorder, Gt. Yarmouth 1625-55,6 King’s Lynn, Norf. 1644-51;7 custos brevium (jt.), c.p. 1630;8 clerk of the ct. sessions, Gt. Yarmouth 1631-3;9 clerk (jt.), Ct. of Wards 1644;10 co-registrar, Chancery 1648-59;11 commr. high cts. justice, E. counties 1650;12 c. bar. exch. [I] 1655-9;13 sjt.-at-law, 1659.14

Freeman, Gt. Yarmouth 1625,15 King’s Lynn 1644;16 j.p. Norf. 1628-60, Suff. 1647-60, Thetford 1649;17 clerk of the assembly, Gt. Yarmouth 1631-3,18 commr. charitable uses 1633, Norf. and Norwich 1638,19 seabreaches, Norf. and Suff. 1638,20 levying money, Norf. 1643, assessment 1644-52, Gt. Yarmouth 1647-8, King’s Lynn 1647-8,21 oyer and terminer, Norf. 1644-5, gaol delivery 1644-5,22 excise on herring, Gt. Yarmouth 1644, New Model Army ordinance, Norf. 1645, militia 1648, fen drainage 1649,23 Eastern circ. 1654-8,24 sewers, Norf. 1658.25

Commr. advancement of money 1643,26 govt. plantations, W. Indies 1643;27 cttee. for compounding 1644-at least 1650;28 commr. for regulating excise 1645, exclusion from sacrament 1646, indemnity 1647, scandalous offences 1648, sale of bp.’s lands 1648-9, trial of king 1649;29 cttee. RN at least 1649-at least 1650,30 Irish affairs 1650-9,31 adventurers in Ire. 1653-9.32

Elder, St. Margaret’s Lothbury, London 1646;33 member, Gt. Yarmouth Congregational church 1649.34

Biography

Corbet’s political life lies mainly beyond the scope of these volumes as he did not become active in either local or national affairs until after 1628, when his elder brother Sir John, one of the ‘Five Knights’, died as a result of being imprisoned by the king. John’s death may ultimately have influenced Corbet to become a staunch parliamentarian during the Civil War.

An active lawyer, Corbet was returned to the 1628 Parliament as the junior burgess for Great Yarmouth, where he was recorder.35 He was named to four private bill committees. These concerned the lands of Samuel Sewster (16 May) and Edmund Hammond (16 June); the granting of Sir Walter Raleigh’s† estate of Sherborne to George Digby, earl of Bristol (23 May) and the restitution-in-blood of Raleigh’s heir, Carew† (28 May).36 Corbet seems also to have been interested in a petition submitted by the bookseller Michael Sparkes against High Commission, as he was required to help examine it on 20 May and on 3 June presented it to the Commons.37 In the 1629 session Corbet’s committees included bills concerning the begging of forfeitures before attainder (23 Jan.); the reversal of a Court of Ward’s decree against John Estofte (19 February) and petitions from William Nowell* (7 Feb.), Mr. Billingsley (13 Feb.) and John Rolle* (20 February).38

Corbet became an important Member of the Long Parliament, was a founding member of the Eastern Association, and later signed the death warrant of Charles I. Appointed a commissioner for Irish affairs in 1650, he lived in Ireland during the 1650s, becoming chief baron of the Irish Exchequer in 1655. After the Restoration, he was elected for Great Yarmouth to the Convention Parliament, but his return was annulled. Fearing retribution for his part in the regicide, Corbet fled to the Continent, but was captured in Holland by Sir George Downing† and brought to England, where he was tried and condemned to death.39 In his scaffold speech on 19 Apr. 1662, Corbet claimed that he had always acted on behalf of the lawful authority of the state. He also declared that he still maintained the ‘Congregational way’ in religion.40 No will or letters of administration have been found.41

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Chris Kyle

Notes

  • 1. Norf. Peds. pt. 3 (Norf. Geneal. xiii) comp. P. Palgrave-Moore, 38-9; Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 146.
  • 2. Al. Cant.
  • 3. J. Peile, Biog. Reg. Christ’s Coll. i. 286.
  • 4. LI Admiss.
  • 5. J. Gage, Hist. and Antiqs. of Suff.: Hundred of Thingoe, 106.
  • 6. Norf. RO, Y/C19/5, f. 336; Norf. Official Lists ed. H. L’Estrange, 170.
  • 7. Norf. Official Lists, 200.
  • 8. CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 182.
  • 9. Norf. Official Lists, 171.
  • 10. B. Whitelocke, Memorials ed. R.H. Whitelocke, i. 256; CJ, iii. 484b.
  • 11. Whitelocke, ii. 294; G. Aylmer, State’s Servants, 88-9.
  • 12. A. and O. ii. 494.
  • 13. CSP Dom. 1655, p. 207.
  • 14. Order of Sjts.-at-Law ed. J.H. Baker (Selden Soc. suppl. ser. v), 192.
  • 15. Norf. RO, Y/C19/6, f. 7.
  • 16. Norf. RO (King’s Lynn), KL/C7/10, f. 137.
  • 17. C231/6, f. 168; CUL, Dd.viii.1, f. 72v.
  • 18. Norf. Official Lists, 171.
  • 19. C192/1, unfol.
  • 20. C181/5, f. 103.
  • 21. A. and O. i. 170, 538, 641, 971, 972, 1089; ii. 40, 304, 473, 670.
  • 22. C181/5, ff. 234r-v, 261.
  • 23. A. and O. i. 497, 623, 1240; ii. 139.
  • 24. C181/6, ff. 16, 116, 165, 212, 304.
  • 25. Ibid. f. 339.
  • 26. CCAM, 14.
  • 27. A. and O. i. 331.
  • 28. CCC, 4, 125, 137, 356.
  • 29. A. and O. i. 691, 853, 937, 1209, 1227, 1254; ii. 153.
  • 30. Add. 22546, ff. 19, 31.
  • 31. CSP Dom. 1650, pp. 442, 461.
  • 32. A. and O. ii. 723, 741, 1100, 1254, 1257, 1298.
  • 33. T. Liu, Puritan London, 82.
  • 34. C.J. Palmer, Hist. Great Yarmouth, 49.
  • 35. Norf. RO, Y/C19/6, f. 89v; Y/C18/6, f. 242v.
  • 36. CD 1628, iii. 429, 558; iv. 3, 331.
  • 37. Ibid. iii. 492; iv. 68.
  • 38. CJ, i. 927a, 929b, 931a, 931b, 992a; CD 1629, pp. 177-8.
  • 39. Oxford DNB; M.F. Keeler, Long Parl.
  • 40. W. Kennet, Reg. and Chronicle Ecclesiastical and Civil, i. 664-5.
  • 41. LR2/266, ff. 1, 7.