STANDISH, Richard (1621-62), of Duxbury, Standish, Lancs.

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. Apr. - 20 June 1660

Family and Education

bap. 21 Oct. 1621, 3rd but 2nd surv. s. of Thomas Standish (d. 1642) of Duxbury by 1st w. Anne, da. of Sir Thomas Wingfield of Letheringham, Suff. m. Elizabeth, da. of Piers Legh of Lyme, Cheshire, 6s. 3da. suc. bro. 1648.1

Offices Held

Capt. of ft. (parliamentarian) by 1643, col. 1648.2

J.p. Lancs. 1648-?d., commr. for militia 1648, 1659, Mar. 1660, assessment 1649-52, 1657, Jan. 1660-d., col. of militia ft. 1650, capt. of militia horse Apr. 1660.3

Biography

Standish’s ancestors were established in the parish from which they took their name by the reign of Richard I. The senior branch, residing at Standish Hall, had Catholic tendencies, but the Duxbury family was Protestant under the Stuarts. Standish’s father sat for Liverpool in 1626, and for Preston in both the Short and Long Parliaments as an opponent of the Court. He died in October 1642, a month after Standish’s eldest brother, a royalist captain, was killed at the siege of Manchester. Standish himself, a Presbyterian, was in arms for Parliament in both wars, and after succeeding to the estate represented the county under the Protectorate. But by 1657 Roger Whitley noted him among the local Royalists. At the general election of 1660 he was returned for Preston and marked as a friend by Lord Wharton. An inactive Member of the Convention, he was named only to the committees to cancel all grants since 1641 and recommend provision for maimed soldiers. His election was declared void on 20 June, and it is not likely that he stood again. He died in March 1662. His son was created a baronet in 1677 and returned for Wigan as a Whig in 1690.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Irene Cassidy

Notes

  • 1. Chorley Par. Reg. (Lancs. Par. Reg. Soc. xxxviii), 40, 103; Croston, Lancs. iv. 244; Ormerod, Cheshire, iii. 677; VCH Lancs. vi. 210.
  • 2. Military Procs. in Lancs. (Chetham Soc. ii), 85, 252.
  • 3. Lancs. RO, QSC 49-62; CSP Dom. 1650, p. 509; Parl. Intell. 23 Apr. 1660.
  • 4. VCH Lancs. vi. 208; R. Halley, Lancs. Puritanism and Nonconformity, 155, 175; Keeler, Long Parl. 347-8; Military Procs. in Lancs. 46, 51, 55; Newcome Diary (Chetham Soc. xviii), 63, 67.