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COLMORE, William (c.1649-1723), of Old Deanery House, Warwick.
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Biography Detail
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Family and Education
b. c.1649, 3rd s. of William Colmore, merchant, of Birmingham, being 1st s. by 2nd w. educ. Magdalen Coll. Oxf. matric. 3 May 1667, aged 18; I. Temple 1669. m. Jan. 1676, Elizabeth (d. 27 May 1731), da. and coh. of Edmund Waring of Humphreston Hall, Donington, Salop, 10s. (6 d.v.p.) 3da. suc. fa. 1675.1
Offices Held
Commr. for assessment, Warws. 1677-80, 1689-90, j.p. 1690-?d., sheriff 1699-1700.
Biography
Colmore came from a Birmingham merchant family, one of whom was on the original board of governors of King Edward VI’s school. His father served on the county committee in the Civil War, and continued to hold local office during the Interregnum. Though he retained a valuable estate in Birmingham, he seems to have moved to Warwick in later life. Colmore himself married the daughter of a Shropshire republican, who was lucky to escape exclusion from the Act of Indemnity at the Restoration. Nevertheless he was a Tory who joined with William Digby, Lord Digby at the general election of 1689. He voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant; but his only committee in the Convention was to consider the petition against the East India Company of an interloping merchant. He was re-elected, but lost his seat in 1695. His eldest son of the same name sat for Warwick as a Tory from 1713 until his early death in 1722. Colmore himself died eight months later, on 16 July 1723, and was buried in St. Mary’s, Warwick. No member of the family subsequently sat in Parliament.2
