TICHBORNE, Sir Walter (c.1580-1637), of Aldershot, Hants and Drury Court, Westminster.

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

[1625]

Family and Education

b. c.1580, 2nd s. of Sir Benjamin Tichborne† 1st bt. (d.1629), of Tichborne, Hants and Amphillis, da. of Richard Weston†, j.c.p. 1559-72, of Skreens, Roxwell, Essex; bro. of Sir Richard*.1 m. 7 May 1597,2 Mary (d. 31 Jan. 1621),3 da. and coh. of Robert White of Aldershot, 9s. (1 d.v.p.) 6da. (1 d.v.p.).4 kntd. 16 Nov. 1604.5 d. by Dec. 1637.6

Offices Held

J.p. Surr. 1610-d., Hants by 1614-d.;7 kpr. Crondal warren, Hants 1613-d.,8 Windsor forest, Berks. to d.;9 lt.-col. militia ft. Hants 1625-d.;10 commr. Forced Loan, Hants 1626,11 martial law 1628,12 knighthood fines 1630,13 sewers, Wilts. and Hants 1630, I.o.W. 1631;14 constable, Farnham Castle, Surr. 1632-d.;15 freeman, Newport and Yarmouth, I.o.W. 1634;16 commr. piracy, Hants and I.o.W. 1635-6,17 maltsters, Hants 1636.18

Commr. recovery of mortgaged Crown lands 1618;19 equerry, Royal Stables 1625;20 gent. of the privy chamber extraordinary 1635-d.21

Biography

Tichborne and his brother Richard married two sisters, the co-heiresses of Robert White of Aldershot. At White’s death in 1599 the younger Tichborne came into possession of Aldershot, and other property in Hampshire and Surrey.22 He was elected for Petersfield in 1614, probably with the support of Sir Richard Norton*, but left no trace on the records of the Addled Parliament. In 1618 the king, who stood godfather to two of his sons, visited him at Aldershot, and rewarded his hospitality with a share in the patent for the discovery of lands mortgaged by the Crown.23 However, the grant was judged to be a grievance in the next Parliament, and on 21 Mar. 1621 he was given two days to produce it.24 Sir Richard, who was MP for Winchester, undertook that he would bring in the offending patent, but there is no record of any further action being taken. James visited Aldershot again in 1622 and 1623. Soon afterwards Tichborne was noted at the county assizes as being ‘out of the country’, probably with one of his daughters, who became a nun in Brussels in the summer of 1623.25 He was still abroad at the time of the 1624 election.

Tichborne was returned to the first Caroline Parliament for both Midhurst and Wotton Bassett, both within the patronage of prominent Catholics.26 On 21 June 1625 he opted for the Wiltshire borough. His only other contribution to parliamentary proceedings, after the session had relocated to Oxford to avoid the plague in London, was to urge the House on 10 Aug. to resolve to grant supply and go to the question.27 He does not appear to have stood again. In the next Parliament, on 3 May 1626, the Commons were informed that one of Tichborne’s daughters had already been convicted of recusancy and another was a practising Catholic, to say nothing of the nun at Brussels; but he was nevertheless left out of the presentment of recusants, by request of his son, Benjamin*, a lawyer who was then the Member for Petersfield.28 The king visited Aldershot again the following year. By 1635 Tichborne was so far entangled in his brother’s debts as to require royal protection, and in June 1637 Sir William Uvedale* and others were ordered to mediate with his creditors, probably without success, since he was outlawed soon afterwards, and the manor of Aldershot extended.29 He died shortly before the end of the year, apparently intestate.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Virginia C.D. Moseley / Henry Lancaster

Notes

  • 1. Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxvi), 126.
  • 2. Her. and Gen. iv. 64.
  • 3. H.N. Cole, Aldershot, 286.
  • 4. Berry, Hants Gen. 31-32.
  • 5. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 136.
  • 6. CSP Dom. 1637-8, p. 7.
  • 7. C66/1988; Surr. Indictments Jas. I ed. J.S. Cockburn, 54; SP16/405.
  • 8. Crondal Recs. ed. F.J. Baigent, 478.
  • 9. CSP Dom. 1640, p. 129.
  • 10. Add. 21922, ff. 5v, 59v, 99v.
  • 11. F.J. Baigent and J.E. Millard, Basingstoke, 400.
  • 12. APC, 1627-8, p. 318.
  • 13. Add. 21922, f. 174.
  • 14. C181/4, ff. 49v, 89.
  • 15. Her. and Gen. iv. 117; Manning and Bray, Surr. iii. 137.
  • 16. I.o.W. RO, NBC 45/2, f. 197v; Add. 5669, f. 97v.
  • 17. C181/5, ff. 24, 58.
  • 18. PC2/46, p. 273.
  • 19. CD 1621, vii. 412-13.
  • 20. LC2/6, f. 61.
  • 21. LC3/1; CSP Dom. 1637, pp. 119, 278.
  • 22. PROB 11/93, f. 271v; VCH Surr. ii. 342, 617; VCH Hants, ii. 476-7, iv. 3, 203-4.
  • 23. Her. and Gen. iv. 116-18; C66/2183.
  • 24. CJ, i. 567a; CD 1621, vi. 79, vii. 412-3.
  • 25. Surr. Indictments Jas. I, 245, 264; Her. and Gen. iv. 117-18.
  • 26. VCH Wilts. ix. 191.
  • 27. CJ, i. 800a, 814b.
  • 28. Procs. 1626, ii. 321, iii. 313.
  • 29. CSP Dom. 1635-6, p. 547; 1637, pp. 118-19, 172, 278, 345; 1637-8, p. 7; CSP Dom. Addenda, 1625-49, pp. 558, 560; Docquets of Letters Patent 1642-6 ed. W.H. Black, 355; E401/2459.