Family and Education

b. 4 Dec. 1606,1 o.s. of Sir Peter Frescheville* and Joyce (d. Apr.1619), da. of Thomas Fleetwood† of The Vache, Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks.2 educ. Magdalen Hall, Oxf. 1621; M. Temple 1624.3 m. (1) Bruce (d. 10 Apr. 1629), da. of Francis Nichols* of Ampthill, Beds., s.p.; (2) by 27 Apr. 1630, Sarah (d. 22 June 1666), da. of Sir John Harington of Bagworth, Leics., 3da. (1 d.v.p.); (3) Dec. 1666, Anna Charlotte (d. 12 Nov. 1717), da. of Sir Henry de Vic, 1st bt. chan. of the Garter, of Windsor Castle, Berks., s.p.4 suc. fa. 1634;5 cr. Bar. Frescheville of Staveley 16 Mar. 1665. d. 31 Mar. 1682.6

Offices Held

Dep. lt. Derbys. by 1630-at least 1640, 1660-at least 1680,7 commr. array 1642,8 j.p. 1660-d.,9 capt. vol. horse 1660-1,10 commr. assessment 1661-5,11 corporations 1662-3,12 loyal and indigent officers 1662,13 oyer and terminer, Northern circ. 1665-at least 1673.14

Gent. of the privy chamber (extraordinary) 1631,15 (ordinary) by 1639-at least 1641;16 commr. to swear masters in Chancery.17

Cornet, king’s gds. 1639;18 capt. of horse (roy.) 1642, col. 1643-5; gov. Welbeck. Notts.1645,19 York 1670-d.;20 capt. Royal Horse Gds. (the Blues) 1661-1680;21 gen. 2 tp. of horse and ft. co. 1663; capt. ft. co. 1678.22

Biography

It was doubtless Sir William Cavendish I* who arranged Frescheville’s first marriage to a cousin of his wife’s and, as 2nd earl of Devonshire and lord lieutenant, approved his return for Derbyshire to the third Caroline Parliament while Frescheville was still at the Middle Temple.23 On 21 Apr. 1628 Frescheville was appointed to the committee for Devonshire’s land bill,24 but he received no further mentions in the parliamentary records. His second marriage was to a maid of honour to Queen Henrietta Maria. On 27 Apr. 1630 the king wrote to Sir Peter Frescheville to inform him of his son’s marriage, suggesting it had been contracted without his father’s consent. Charles I paid tribute to the bride’s ‘duty, modesty, and virtue ... as she may rightly be esteemed an example to others’.25 However, Frescheville’s kinsman Gervase Holles said she ‘brought him no portion but Court legacies: pride, passion and prodigalities ... she has lost him £500 in cards in one night. But now they say she gains by it, having got the knack of game (as gamesters call it) but others call it cheating’.26 Nevertheless the marriage strengthened his Court connections and eventually brought him office. He was one of the first to raise forces for the king in 1642 and was wounded at the first battle of Newbury, although Holles says he was only bruised by a spent bullet.27 He was able to compound for the relatively modest sum of £287 10s.4d. by surrendering the tithes of Holmesfield chapel valued at £30 per annum.28 He resumed the representation of Derbyshire in the Cavalier Parliament until a long-awaited peerage ended his Commons career. The last of his family, he made his will on 9 Jan. 1682, adding codicils a day latter and three days before he died.29 He died at London at four in the morning and was buried at Staveley on 9 Apr. 1682 where a ‘handsome’ monument was erected to his memory. ‘He was a great courtier, an expert soldier, and a good commonwealth’s man, to which may be added his hospitality and charity.’30

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Virginia C.D. Moseley

Notes

• 1. J. Hunter, ‘Additions to the Ped. of the Freschvile Fam.’ Coll. Top. et Gen. iv. 386.
• 2. F. Madan, ‘Ped. of the Frecheville and Musard Fams.’ Coll. Top. et Gen. iv. 5.
• 3. Al. Ox.; M. Temple Admiss.
• 4. Madan, 5, 217; Savile Corresp. ed. W.D. Cooper (Cam. Soc. lxxi), 9.
• 5. C142/198/30.
• 6. CP, v. 578-9.
• 7. HMC 9th Rep. pt. 2, p. 389; HMC Cowper, ii. 259; SP29/11/156; All Souls, Oxf. ms 223, f. 7.
• 8. Northants. RO, FH133.
• 9. C220/9/4, f. 15v; C193/12/4, f. 20.
• 10. HMC 15th Rep. VII, 162.
• 11. SR, v. 211, 329, 456, 529.
• 12. Recs. Bor. of Chesterfield ed. J.P. Yeatman, 138.
• 13. SR, v. 381.
• 14. C181/7, pp. 330, 642.
• 15. LC5/132, p. 241.
• 16. LC5/134, p. 340; LC3/1.
• 17. Docquets of Letters Patent 1642-6 ed. W.H. Black, 120.
• 18. CSP Dom. Addenda, 1625-49, p. 607.
• 19. P.R. Newman, Roy. Officers in Eng. and Wales, 145; HMC Portland, i. 253.
• 20. CSP Dom. 1670, p. 402; 1682, p. 159.
• 21. C. Dalton, English Army Lists and Commission Regs. i. 4; CSP Dom. 1679-80, p. 431.
• 22. CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 226; 1678, p. 28.
• 23. MTR, 748.
• 24. CD 1628, iii. 3.
• 25. Madan, 217.
• 26. G. Holles, Mems. of Holles Fam. ed. A.C Wood (Cam. Soc. ser. 3. lv), 162.
• 27. Madan, 215; Holles, 161.
• 28. CCC, 1048.
• 29. PROB 11/371, f. 351.
• 30. Madan, 213, 217-16.