Family and Education

b. c.1662, 2nd s. of Sir John Chichester, 1st Bt., by 2nd w. m. 15 Apr. 1684, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Thomas Drewe of Broadhembury Grange, 4s. 6da. suc. bro. Sept. 1680.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Barnstaple 1684; commr. for assessment, Devon 1689-90, j.p. ?1689-96, 1700-d., dep. lt. 1703-?d.2

Biography

Chichester sold the family estate at Raleigh and resided at Youlston, three miles from Barnstaple. Sworn in as a freeman of the borough in 1684 under the new charter, he was returned to Parliament in the following year. His only committee in James II’s Parliament was on a bill to enable an Exeter gentleman to change his name. Although the corporation would not accept him as recorder in 1686, he was re-elected to the Convention in 1689. According to Anthony Rowe he voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant, but he was appointed to no committees and made no recorded speeches. He obtained leave to go into the country at the second attempt on 19 Mar. 1689, and probably did not return till his re-election as a Tory nearly a quarter of a century later. He died on 3 Feb. 1718, and was buried at Pilton. His son, a Jacobite, sat for Barnstaple from 1734 till his death six years later.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: J. S. Crossette

Notes

• 1. W. R. Drake, Devon Notes and Notelets, 250; Vivian, Vis. Devon, 307.
• 2. PC 2/76/263.
• 3. T. Wainwright, Barnstaple Recs. i. 74, 82; Trans. Devon Assoc. lxii, 264.