PHELIPS, (PHILLIPS), Edward I (c.1613-80), of Montacute, Som.

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

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1640
c. Feb. 1641 - 5 Feb. 1644

Family and Education

b. c.1613, 1st s. of Sir Robert Phelips of Montacute by Bridget, da. of Sir Thomas Gorges of Longford Castle, Wilts.; bro. of Robert Phelips. educ. Wadham, Oxf. matric. 30 Oct. 1629, aged 16. m. 21 Feb. 1632 (with £3,000), Anne, da. of Sir Robert Pye, auditor of the Exchequer, of Faringdon, Berks., 4s. 1da. suc. fa. 1638.1

Offices Held

J.p. Som. 1638-46, July 1660-d., commr. of array 1642, oyer and terminer, Western circuit July 1660; dep. lt. Som. July 1660-d., commr. for sewers Aug., Dec. 1660, assessment Aug. 1660-d.; high steward, Ilchester 1661-d.; commr. for corporations, Som. 1662-3, loyal and indigent officers 1662, recusants 1675.2

Col. of horse (royalist) c.1643-5; gov. Ilchester c.1643-5.3

Biography

Phelips’s ancestors had lived at Montacute since the 15th century. They rose in the royal service, and Richard Phelips, yeoman of the chamber and collector of customs at Poole, entered Parliament in 1512. Phelips’s grandfather acquired the former Cluniac priory at Montacute and became Speaker of James I’s first Parliament. Although Phelips had resisted ship-money, he took up arms for the King in the Civil War, compounding in 1647 for £1,276. He was tried at Chard for complicity in Penruddock’s rising, but acquitted by the grand jury. At the Restoration he was proposed as a knight of the Royal Oak, with an income of £1,500 p.a., but he withdrew from the local excise farm, and his petitions for a more tangible reward came to nothing, if indeed they were ever presented.4

Phelips was returned for the county at the general election of 1661. Since his son and brother also sat in the Cavalier Parliament, there is the possibility of confusion in the Journals, but he was probably moderately active, being named to 116 committees and telling in four divisions. In the first session he was appointed to the committees for the security, corporations and uniformity bills. Over the last measure he supported the Lords’ amendment to bring forward the date of operation from Michaelmas to Bartholomew-tide, and on 5 May 1662 he twice acted as teller with Sir Richard Temple against the Court over the militia bill. Under Clarendon he was probably a country Cavalier. In 1663 he was added to the committee to provide remedies against meetings of dissenters, in which he was active locally. He was again teller for the Opposition in a supply debate in 1666. It is clear that he was in financial difficulties, and by 1668 he had handed over management of the estate to his son. He was listed as a court supporter in 1671, but after that date his activity declined, though he was added to the committee for preventing abuses in parliamentary elections in 1673. He received the government whip in 1675, and his name appeared in Wiseman’s list. Shaftesbury marked him ‘worthy’ in 1677, apparently confusing him with his son, but his name appeared on the working lists. At the general election he was defeated in the county and involved in a double return at Ilchester, which was decided against him. He was blacklisted in the ‘unanimous club’, and is unlikely to have stood again in the autumn. He died on 5 Feb. 1680, and was buried at Montacute.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. Hutchins, Dorset, iii. 367; Keeler, Long Parl. 305.
  • 2. T. G. Barnes, Som. 1625-40, p. 315; Q. Sess. Recs. (Som. Rec. Soc. xxxiv), p. xvi; Som. RO, DD/PH 246; Wells corp. act bk. 1662-5.
  • 3. Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 761, 855, 1159; D. Underdown, Som. in Civil War and Interregnum, 69; J. Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 63.
  • 4. Keeler, 305-6; SP23/181/318; Assize Orders 1640-59 (Som. Rec. Soc. lxxi) 69-71; Som. RO, DD/PH224/105-7; Cal. Treas. Bks. i. 428.
  • 5. CJ, viii. 409, 634; CSP Dom. 1661-2, pp. 430, 434, 455; 1665-6, p. 273; 1679-80, p. 86; Som. RO, DD/PH224/36; Som. and Dorset N. and Q. xxviii. 107.