HYDE, Sir Frederick (1614-77), of Teddington, Mdx.

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

Constituency

Dates

c. Sept. 1666 - Apr. 1677

Family and Education

b. 28 June 1614, 10th but 8th surv. s. of Sir Lawrence Hyde (d.1642), attorney-gen. to Queen Anne of Denmark, of Salisbury, Wilts. by Barbara, da. of John Baptist Castilion of Benham Valence, Berks.; bro. of Sir Robert Hyde, c.j.K.b. 1663-5, and Alexander Hyde, bp. of Salisbury 1665-7. educ. M. Temple 1631, called 1638. m. Anne (d. 27 June 1687), da. of Nathaniel Tomkins, clerk of the Queen’s council, of Holborn, Mdx., s.p. Kntd. 23 July 1663.1

Offices Held

Bencher, M. Temple June 1660; commr. for assessment, Mdx. 1664-d., Bucks. 1665-9, Haverfordwest 1673-d., Pemb., Pembroke and Tenby 1673-4; j.p. Hants July 1660-d., Bucks. and Herts. 1665-d.; commr. for oyer and terminer, Western circuit 1662, c.j. S. Wales circuit 1666-d.2

Serjeant-at-law Oct. 1660; serjeant-at-law to Queen Catherine of Braganza by 1669-d.

Biography

Hyde was the first cousin of Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and came of a strongly Anglican royalist family. His elder brother Robert, MP for Salisbury in the Long Parliament, joined the King at Oxford. His father-in-law was hanged in 1643 for participation in the plot devised by Edmund Waller I for betraying London to the Royalists, and another brother, Henry, was executed in 1650. Hyde himself seems to have taken no part in the Civil War. At the Restoration, his brother became a judge and Hyde himself serjeant-at-law. Six years later he succeeded Sir William Morton both as Welsh judge and as Member for Haverfordwest. Hugh Owen (Sir Hugh Owen, 2nd Bt.) petitioned against the return; the committee recommended that the election should be declared void, but the House voted in favour of the sitting Member. In an enigmatic passage, Andrew Marvell describes him as contending with (Sir) Solomon Swale ‘for the command of politics or sots’ in the court party. He was not an active member of the House, sitting on only ten committees, of which the most important were to amend the articles of impeachment against Henry Brouncker and to consider the condition of Ireland. He was included in both lists of the court party in 1669-71, as one who might be engaged by the Duke of York and his friends, and later his name appears on the Paston list, the list of officials in the House, and on Wiseman’s list. He was buried in the Temple on 3 May 1677. He left some property in Wiltshire and Dorset, but his will indicates that he was not a wealthy man.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Leonard Naylor / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

  • 1. Vis. Wilts. (Harl. Soc. cv), 99; Wilts. N. and Q. vi. 344, 436; Lipscomb, Bucks. iii. 185.
  • 2. W. R. Williams, Great Sessions in Wales, 175.
  • 3. Keeler, Long Parl. 228; CF, ix. 26; Marvell ed. Margoliouth, i. 145; Harl. 7020, f. 48; PCC 49 Hale.