Family and Education

b. c.1656, 8th s. of Sir Montagu Bertie^†, 2nd Earl of Lindsey, being 3rd s. by 2nd w. Bridget, suo jure Baroness Norris, da. and h. of Edward Wray^†, groom of the bed-chamber, of Rycote, Oxon., wid. of Hon. Edward Sackville; half-bro. of Hon. Charles Bertie, Hon. Peregrine Bertie I, Hon. Richard Bertie and Robert Bertie I. educ. Padua 1674. m. (1) bef. 23 May 1687, Philadelphia, da. and h. of Sir Edward Norreys of Weston-on-the-Green, Oxon, 2s. 3da.; (2) Catherine, da. of Sir Heneage Fetherston, 1st Bt., of Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, s.p.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Oxon. 1677-80, 1689, Bucks. 1679-80, Bucks. and Oxford 1689-90, j.p. Oxon. 1679-87, 1689-?d., Bucks. aft. 1685-Feb. 1688, 1691-?d.; dep. lt. Oxon. 1680-7, 1689-1701, 1702-?d. capt. of militia horse by 1681-7, ?1689- d.; freeman, Oxford 1681-June 1688, Oct. 1688-?d., Devizes Mar. 1688.2

Capt. Lord horse 1678-9, indep. tp. June-Dec. 1685; dep. constable of the Tower 1702-5.

Biography

Bertie appears to have been well provided for out of his mother’s inheritance. He was returned at a contested by-election for Westbury in 1678 on the interest of his brother, the 1st Earl of Abingdon. Shaftesbury marked him ‘thrice vile’, and his name appeared on both lists of the court party. No activity in the Cavalier Parliament can be definitely ascribed to him, however, and on 16 Dec. he was sent for in custody as a defaulter. He was defeated at the first general election of 1679, and unseated in 1680 without serving on any committees. He transferred to Woodstock, another family borough, in 1681, but left no trace on the records of the third Exclusion Parliament. He sat on the Oxfordshire grand jury that found a true bill against College, the ‘Protestant joiner’, and took an active part as a militia officer in searching for arms after the Rye House Plot. He was returned to James II’s Parliament for Oxford, again on his brother’s interest. A moderately active Member, he was appointed to the elections committee and to three others, including that for taking the accounts of the disbandment commissioners. Like two of his brothers he raised a volunteer troop against Monmouth, but lost his commission for voting against the dispensations to Roman Catholic officers. He had already been removed from the Oxfordshire lieutenancy and commission of the peace before the lord lieutenant’s questions on the Test Act and Penal Laws. On the landing of William of Orange in 1688 he again raised a troop of horse ‘at considerable expense’, this time against James II, and helped to release John Lovelace. He was in attendance on the Prince by 3 Dec. and was re-elected for Oxford eight days later, together with his father-in-law. This result was confirmed at the general election of 1689. In the Convention he voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant. Totally inactive as a committeeman, he was involved in an angry dispute in the House on 7 May 1689 with William Harbord, whose remarks about pensioners and the Westbury election he resented. Bertie obtained leave ‘to go into the country for three weeks’, but was secured by the serjeant-at-arms and had to promise not to prosecute the quarrel. Bertie remained a Tory under William III and Anne, but did not sit after the Hanoverian succession, though he took the oath of allegiance to George I. He died on 4 Dec. 1734 and was buried at Chesterton. His grandson sat for Oxfordshire from 1743 to 1754.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. Collins, Peerage, iii. 629; HMC Rutland, ii. 114.
• 2. Wood’s Life and Times (Oxf. Hist. Soc. xxi), 524-5; Oxford Council Acts (Oxf. Hist. Soc. n.s. ii), 139; PC2/72, ff. 632, 668; Eg. 1626, f. 36.
• 3. Luttrell, i. 110, 481; CSP Dom. Jan.-June 1683, pp. 353, 369; 1690-1, p. 516; Clarendon Corresp. i. 134-5; ii. 213; HMC Rutland, ii. 97; Grey, ix. 234-5; J. Dunkin, Bullingdon and Ploughley, ii. 214.