Family and Education

bap. 12 Oct. 1640, 1st s. of Thomas Twisden. educ. I. Temple 1656. m. lic. 7 Dec. 1667, Margaret, da. of Sir John Marsham, 1st Bt., of Whorne’s Place, Cuxton, Kent, 6s. (2 d.v.p.) 2da. suc. fa. 2 Jan. 1683.

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Kent 1673-80, 1689-90, j.p. 1673-Feb. 1688, Oct. 1688-92; asst. Rochester Bridge 1674-1702, warden 1674, 1681, 1688, 1695; commr. for recusants, Kent 1675, dep. lt. 1680-Feb. 1688, 1689-92.1

Biography

Twisden hoped to enter Parliament for Rochester on the death of Sir Francis Clerke in 1685, but according to the court candidate Sir Phineas Pett he was given a cool reception by some of the aldermen. Parliament was dissolved before the writ could be issued. He told the lord lieutenant in January 1688 that he agreed to taking off all the Penal Laws ‘excepting that of conventicles; but cannot agree to the taking off the Tests. ... He shall endeavour to contribute to the election of such as he may judge to be loyal and good men.’ He was not recommended as court candidate, but he had been ‘for some time endeavouring the good opinion of the freemen’. With the assistance of Sir John Banks he was returned in the abortive election and again in 1689, unopposed. He was not an active Member of the Convention, though he voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant. He made no recorded speeches, and was named to only seven committees. He acted as teller on 18 July for granting leave of absence to Lawrence Carter. After the recess he was appointed to the committees to inquire into the expenses and miscarriages of the war. He is not known to have stood again, though he added considerable property, especially in Wrotham, to the large Kentish estates which he inherited from his father. As a suspected Jacobite, he was dropped from the commission of the peace in 1692. He died suddenly at his London lodgings on 28 Feb. 1703. His son sat for the county as a Tory under George I.2

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. Information from Mr P. F. Cooper, Bridge Clerk, Rochester Bridge Trust.
• 2. Pepys Corresp. ed. Smith, ii. 55; Le Neve, Mon. Angl. 1700-1715, p. 53.