Family and Education

b. c.1642, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Sir Vincent Corbet, 1st Bt., of Moreton Corbet by Sarah, da. and coh. of Sir Robert Monson^† of North Carlton, Lincs. m.by 1668, Elizabeth, da. and coh. of Francis Thornes of Shelvock, Salop, 3s. (2 d.v.p.) 1da. suc. fa. 28 Dec. 1656.1

Offices Held

Capt. of militia horse, Salop 1661, commr. for assessment 1661-80, dep. lt. by 1670-d., j.p. 1672-d., commr. for recusants 1675.2

Biography

Corbet was the head of an eminent Shropshire family which had regularly represented the county since the Model Parliament. His father, knight of the shire in the Short Parliament, raised a regiment of foot for the King during the Civil War, and compounded in 1646 on the Bridgnorth articles on a fine of £2,822 at one-sixth, reduced by £433 on account of debts totalling £9,200. He was said to be willing to participate in a plan to seize Shrewsbury for the King in 1654, but did not take part in Penruddock’s rising the following year. Corbet inherited as a minor an estate further encumbered by the need to raise portions for his five sisters. He fell under the control of Francis Thornes, the principal trustee, who received most of the profits from his estates and to whose daughter he was married off at the earliest opportunity.3

Returned for Shropshire at both elections of 1679, Corbet was classed as ‘honest’ by Shaftesbury, but was absent from the division on the exclusion bill. He was appointed to no committees in either the first or second Exclusion Parliaments. It was later alleged that he offered William Forester 100 muskets to defend the Protestant interest against the Papists. He died in London of smallpox on 4 Feb. 1681, and was buried at Moreton Corbet. His daughter and heir married the son of Edward Kynaston I.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

• 1. Trans. Salop. Arch. Soc. (ser. 4), xi. 172-3.
• 2. SP29/41/85.
• 3. Cal. Comm. Comp. 1370-1; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 736; A. E. Corbet, Corbet Fam. ii. 339; Underdown, Royalist Conspiracy, 91, 146.
• 4. CSP Dom. July-Sept. 1683, p. 137; Prot. Dom. Intell. 8 Feb. 1681.