Family and Education

b. c.1642, o.s. of Thomas Chafe I. educ. Sherborne sch.; Wadham, Oxf. 1657. m. 13 Apr. 1662, Susanna, da. and h. of Edward Moleyns of West Hall, 1s. d.v.p. 5da. suc. fa. 1662.1

Offices Held

J.p. Dorset 1670-June 1688, Nov. 1688-96, 1700-d.; commr. for assessment 1673-80, 1689-90, recusants 1675; freeman, Lyme Regis 1683; dep. lt. Dorset 1685-May 1688, Oct. 1688-96, 1701-d.; alderman, Bridport aft. 1685-Jan. 1688.2

Biography

Chafe no doubt owed his return for Bridport in 1685 chiefly to the recorder, Hugh Hodges, with whom he must have been on intimate terms, since their fathers had been trustees for the Digby estates during the Interregnum, and they had been schoolfellows at Sherborne. Chafe probably held property in Bridport in the right of his wife, whose ancestor had sat for the borough as long ago as 1491. He left no trace on the records of James II’s Parliament.3

Chafe’s answers to the lord lieutenant’s questions on the repeal of the Test Act and the Penal Laws were negative. He was displaced from the corporation of Bridport, and omitted from the commission of the peace and the lieutenancy in the summer of 1688. Although he continued to act as a j.p. under the new regime, he refused the Association in 1696, and was removed from local office. But he was restored to the commission of the peace before he died on 25 Nov. 1701, aged 59. He was buried at Folke.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

• 1. Hutchins, Dorset, iv. 181; Misc. Gen. et Her. (ser. 5), viii. 297.
• 2. C. A. F. Meekings, Dorset Hearth Tax, 116; Dorset RO, KG 1147, 1148, 1496; Lyme Regis court bk. 1672-92, f. 333v; PC2/72/567.
• 3. Dorset RO, KG 2655; CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 10; PCC 108 Barrington; Bridport corp. mss 21, no. 2244.
• 4. Hutchins, iv. 183; PC 2/72/567; 76, f. 256; CSP Dom. 1689-90, p. 248.