PETTY, Edmund (c.1621-61), of Chipping Wycombe, Bucks.

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

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1621, 1st s. of Maximilian Petty of Thame, Oxon. by 1st w. Elizabeth, da. of Robert Waller of Beaconsfield, Bucks., wid. of John Maney of Staplehurst, Kent. educ. Oriel, Oxf. matric. 22 Jan. 1636, aged 15; L. Inn 1637, called 1644. m. Frances, 1s. 3da. suc. fa. 1639.1

Offices Held

Recorder, Chipping Wycombe by 1651-d.; j.p. Bucks. 1652-July 1660, Dec. 1660-d., commr. for assessment 1652, 1657, Jan. 1660-d., militia 1659, Mar. 1660.2

Biography

Petty’s ancestors were Oxfordshire yeomen living at Tetsworth by the early 16th century. His great-grandfather was granted a coat of arms in 1570 and the family augmented its estates by acquiring exmonastic property in Oxfordshire. Like his father, who represented Westbury in 1628, Petty became a lawyer. He was probably an Independent, holding local office during the Interregnum, and he was nominated, perhaps by Thomas Scott, as one of the commissioners for the government of Scotland shortly before the return of the secluded Members. Nevertheless, he was returned for Wycombe on the corporation interest at the general election of 1660. There was a double return, but he apparently took his seat at once, and was entrusted by Lord Wharton with the management of seven other Members of the Convention, all but two of whom sat for Buckinghamshire constituencies. An inactive Member, he was appointed solely to the committee for the supplementary poll bill, and spoke only once, when he intervened on behalf of Sir Arthur Hesilrige because George Monck had promised that his life should be spared. Wharton sent Petty a copy of the case for modified episcopacy with objections and answers, and relied on him as a manager for the Cavalier Parliament, but he was not re-elected. He died on 16 Dec. 1661 and was buried at Chipping Wycombe, the last of his family to sit in Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Leonard Naylor / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

  • 1. F. G. Lee, Church of Thame, 217-20; Misc. Gen. et Her. (ser. 5, ix), 119; PCC 9 Laud.
  • 2. First Wycombe Ledger Bk. (Bucks. Rec. Soc. xi), 144, 167.
  • 3. Lee, 215-16; VCH Oxon. vii. 150, 153; HMC Popham, 146; Old Parl Hist. xxii. 444; Lee, 219.