TICHBORNE, Sir Walter (c.1580-1637), of Aldershot, Hants and Drury Court, Westminster.

Tichborne and his brother Richard married two sisters, the co-heiresses of Robert White of Aldershot. At White’s death in 1599 the younger Tichborne came into possession of Aldershot, and other property in Hampshire and Surrey.22 PROB 11/93, f. 271v; VCH Surr. ii. 342, 617; VCH Hants, ii. 476-7, iv. 3, 203-4. He was elected for Petersfield in 1614, probably with the support of Sir Richard Norton*, but left no trace on the records of the Addled Parliament. In 1618 the king, who stood godfather to two of his sons, visited him at Aldershot, and rewarded his hospitality with a share in the patent for the discovery of lands mortgaged by the Crown.23 Her. and Gen. iv. 116-18; C66/2183. However, the grant was judged to be a grievance in the next Parliament, and on 21 Mar. 1621 he was given two days to produce it.24 CJ, i. 567a; CD 1621, vi. 79, vii. 412-3. Sir Richard, who was MP for Winchester, undertook that he would bring in the offending patent, but there is no record of any further action being taken. James visited Aldershot again in 1622 and 1623. Soon afterwards Tichborne was noted at the county assizes as being ‘out of the country’, probably with one of his daughters, who became a nun in Brussels in the summer of 1623.25 Surr. Indictments Jas. I, 245, 264; Her. and Gen. iv. 117-18. He was still abroad at the time of the 1624 election.

Tichborne was returned to the first Caroline Parliament for both Midhurst and Wotton Bassett, both within the patronage of prominent Catholics.26 VCH Wilts. ix. 191. On 21 June 1625 he opted for the Wiltshire borough. His only other contribution to parliamentary proceedings, after the session had relocated to Oxford to avoid the plague in London, was to urge the House on 10 Aug. to resolve to grant supply and go to the question.27 CJ, i. 800a, 814b. He does not appear to have stood again. In the next Parliament, on 3 May 1626, the Commons were informed that one of Tichborne’s daughters had already been convicted of recusancy and another was a practising Catholic, to say nothing of the nun at Brussels; but he was nevertheless left out of the presentment of recusants, by request of his son, Benjamin*, a lawyer who was then the Member for Petersfield.28 Procs. 1626, ii. 321, iii. 313. The king visited Aldershot again the following year. By 1635 Tichborne was so far entangled in his brother’s debts as to require royal protection, and in June 1637 Sir William Uvedale* and others were ordered to mediate with his creditors, probably without success, since he was outlawed soon afterwards, and the manor of Aldershot extended.29 CSP Dom. 1635-6, p. 547; 1637, pp. 118-19, 172, 278, 345; 1637-8, p. 7; CSP Dom. Addenda, 1625-49, pp. 558, 560; Docquets of Letters Patent 1642-6 ed. W.H. Black, 355; E401/2459. He died shortly before the end of the year, apparently intestate.