BORLASE, Sir John, 1st Bt. (1619-72), of Bockmer, Medmenham, Bucks.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1640
2 Jan. 1641 - 4 Mar. 1644
1661 - 8 Aug. 1672

Family and Education

b. 21 Aug. 1619, 1st s. of Sir William Borlase of Bockmer by Amy, da. of Sir Francis Popham of Littlecote, Wilts.; bro. of William Borlase. educ. travelled abroad 1632-5; Magdalen Hall, Oxf. 1635; I. Temple 1637. m. 14 Dec. 1637, Alice (d. 16 Nov. 1683), da. of Sir John Bankes, c.j.c.p. 1641-4, of Corfe Castle, Dorset, 5s. (3 d.v.p.) 4da. suc. fa. 1629; cr. Bt. 4 May 1642.1

Offices Held

Commr. for midland assoc., Bucks. 1642, j.p. July 1660-d., dep. lt. c. Aug. 1660-d., commr. for assessment Aug. 1660-d.; freeman, Chipping Wycombe 1661; commr. for corporations, Bucks. 1662-3, loyal and indigent officers 1662.2

Biography

Borlase’s great-grandfather, of Cornish origin, inherited a Buckinghamshire estate in 1545, and sat for the county in 1586. Borlase endeavoured to remain neutral in the Civil War, but was induced, probably by his father-in-law, to go to Oxford in January 1644, though he denied ever taking his seat in Parliament there. He submitted to Parliament in October 1645, presenting a particular showing an income of £1,590 p.a., and paid a fine of £6,800 in the following year. He was imprisoned at Oxford as a royalist suspect after Penruddock’s rising, and he was under house arrest in April 1658, but he does not seem to have been an active conspirator.3

Borlase was elected for Wycombe in 1661, and marked as a friend by Lord Wharton, to be managed by Edmund Petty. An inactive Member of the Cavalier Parliament, he was appointed to only nine committees, most of them in the first session and none of political importance. In 1663 he helped to consider a bill for the benefit of the children of his Buckinghamshire neighbour, Bulstrode Whitelocke, but he served on no more committees after 1664, perhaps because of ill-health; for when he was absent from a call of the House in 1668, he escaped a £40 fine on the plea of sickness. He died on 8 Aug. 1672 and was buried at Little Marlow.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Leonard Naylor / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

  • 1. PC2/42/308; The Gen. n.s. ii. 288-92.
  • 2. First Wycombe Ledger Bk. (Bucks. Rec. Soc. xi), 166; Huntington Lib. Stowe mss, 2/452.
  • 3. VCH Bucks. iii. 80, 87; Keeler, Long Parl. 111; SP 23/69/822, 831; Cal. Comm. Comp. 919-20; Verney Mems. ii. 11, 124.
  • 4. CJ, ix. 49, 52; The Gen. n.s. ii. 288.