STYLE, Sir Thomas (c.1623-1702), of Wateringbury, Kent.

Style’s family traced its ancestors to Ipswich, but may have settled in Kent as early as the late fifteenth century.13Hasted, Kent, v. 112. Style’s great-grandfather, Sir Humphrey Style of Langley in Beckenham, was an esquire of the body to Henry VIII, while two of his sons, Sir Nicholas and Oliver, both served as sheriffs of London. The latter, Style’s grandfather, held the post in 1632, and Style himself was born in the parish of St John, Smithfield, in 1624.14Berry, Pedigrees of Kent, 412. Style’s father, who had by then acquired the seat at Wateringbury, was created baronet in 1627, but at his death in October 1637, our MP was still a minor, and the wardship was purchased by another member of the Kentish gentry, Augustine Skynner*.15WARD9/163, f. 85v; CSP Dom. 1625-49, p. 749; PROB11/175/175.

Style’s youth ensured that he played no part in local politics and administration before his nomination to the commission of the peace in 1647. Given that his former guardian, Skynner, was by then a prominent local Independent, it is tempting to see in this and subsequent appointments evidence of Style’s alliance with local radicals, not least since he may by then have been married to the daughter of another Independent of national standing, Sir William Armyne*. However, while this possibility cannot be discounted, Style had earlier expressed some sympathy for the plight of a local royalist, Sir Roger Twysden*, in the face of what he considered to be harsh treatment at the hands of the Kent county committee.16‘Sir Roger Twysden’s Narrative’, Arch. Cant. iii. 169-70.

Indeed, Style’s subsequent career offers little indication of political radicalism. He accommodated to the commonwealth, during which period he served as both an assessment and a militia commissioner.17CSP Dom. 1650, p. 470. During the protectorate he remained an active justice and also served as a commissioner for oyer and terminer, and his role as a commissioner for the exclusion of scandalous ministers indicates support for a national church. Indeed, in the spring of 1655 he was one of those prominent county figures upon whom the regime relied to take vigorous measures against a renewed royalist threat.18CSP Dom. 1655, p. 94. Nevertheless, by the time Style was returned as a knight of the shire to the 1656 Parliament, he was perceived as a critic of the government, by whom he was prevented from sitting.19CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 51; CJ vii. 425a; Whitelocke, Mems. iv. 280.

Style was, though, admitted to the House for the second session in early 1658. During this brief spell in Parliament, Style was named to seven committees, including that delegated to attend Cromwell regarding publication of his Banqueting House speech.20CJ vii. 580b, 581a, 588b, 589a, 592a. Such appointments once again demonstrated an interest in church affairs, including the maintenance of a preaching ministry and the sale of impropriations.21CJ vii. 588a. Style’s conservatism is also evident from his contribution on 22 January to debate on the Other House. After admitting that ‘I may be ashamed to open my mouth, having so little experience’, Style expressed his support for the second chamber, and opposed its being referred to in this way, ‘else those are precluded that would have another title’.22Burton’s Diary, ii. 342, 343. He also acted as a teller against a motion to send a response to the peers by the Commons’ messengers, rather than by those from the Other House.23CJ vii. 581b; Burton’s Diary, ii. 343-4.

Returned once again as a knight of the shire to Richard Cromwell’s Parliament in 1659, Style was named to only four committees (including the standing committees for Irish and Scottish affairs), but his activity once again indicated an interest in constitutional issues, since he was named to the body charged with considering how to transact proceedings with the Other House (6 Apr.).24CJ vii. 622b, 623a, 623b, 627a. However, during a debate on a controversial London petition which attacked the ‘negative voice’, Style acted as a teller, alongside Major-general William Packer*, in an attempt to ensure that the official response recognised the petitioners’ ‘good affections’, which was heavily defeated by Presbyterians such as Arthur Annesley*.25CJ vii. 604a; Burton’s Diary, iii. 288-95.

An active local commissioner until the Restoration, Style almost certainly welcomed the return of Charles II, and before the end of 1660 he was involved in organising his county’s gift to the new king.26Add. 42596, ff. 8, 8v, 10v; Cent. Kent. Stud. U951/O15. Thereafter, he remained a prominent figure in Kent until his death in 1702, his position enhanced through his marriage to a daughter of Thomas Twisden*, although he never returned to Parliament.27Cent. Kent. Stud. U234/O1, f. 15v; PROB11/468/114. One of his younger sons, Sir Thomas Style 4th bt. represented Bramber in 1715.28HP Commons 1715-1754.