SMYTHE, Charles (1628-83), of Chelsea, 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

26 Jan. 1668
Oct. 1679
1681

Family and Education

b. 10 Mar. 1628, 2nd s. of Sir John Smythe of Sutton-at-Hone, Kent, by Lady Isabella Rich, da. of Robert, 1st Earl of Warwick. educ. Balliol, Oxf. 1639; Emmanuel, Camb. 1644; G. Inn 1646. unm.1

Offices Held

Commr. for recusants, Cornw. 1675.

Biography

Smythe was the grandson of Sir Thomas Smythe, the first governor of the East India Company, and the second cousin of Lord Strangford (Philip Smythe). In 1664 he applied for a fellowship of Queens’ College, Cambridge, but he was unsuccessful because he was not in orders. He was returned to the Cavalier Parliament at a by-election for Lostwithiel, presumably on the interest of his brother-in-law, Lord Robartes. An inactive Member, he was appointed to eight committees, including that to report on debts owed by Members to the crown on 13 Dec. 1670. He was listed among those ‘to be remembered’ in the working lists 1675-8. Sir Richard Wiseman relied upon Robert Robartes to manage him, but Shaftesbury classed him as ‘worthy’ in 1677. He was one of those Members ordered to be sent for as defaulters on the call of the House on 18 Dec. 1678. He stood for Mitchell at the general election, but withdrew before the poll. He sat for Penryn in the second and third Exclusion Parliaments, in which he was appointed to no committees, but he probably opposed exclusion like his kinsmen, the Robarteses. He died at Chelsea and was buried at Lanhydrock in February 1683. He left all his property to his sister.2

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Guildhall RO, St. Bartholomew the Great par. reg.
  • 2. Hasted, Kent, ii. 336-8, 349-50; CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 554; Cornw. RO, WH5192; Soc. of Genealogists, Lanhydrock par. reg.; PCC 39 Drax.