Commons 1604-1629

Military and Naval Men in the Commons

The Parliament of 1604-10

Barnham, Sir Francis

Godolphin, Sir William

Leveson, Sir Richard

Sammes, Sir John

Warburton, Sir Richard

The 1614 Parliament

?Bertie, Sir Peregrine

Colby, Huntington

Radcliffe, Sir John

Sammes, Sir John

Yaxley, Sir Robert

The 1621 Parliament

Cecil, Sir Edward

Mervyn, Sir Henry (from May)

Radcliffe, Sir John

Sidney, Sir Robert

The 1624 Parliament

Cecil, Sir Edward

Merchant Members

These lists are limited to known merchants and those whose primary source of income was probably commerce; they exclude Members who no longer traded or whose trading activities were not the major source of their income. Brief details of each man’s trade and constituency are provided, as are dates of admission where entry to the Commons occurred after Parliament began. Dates of death are given where a man expired while still a Member.

Lawyer Members of the House of Commons

GI Gray’s Inn

IT Inner Temple

LI Lincoln’s Inn

MT Middle Temple

The Parliament of 1604-10

Barristers

Bacon, Sir Francis (GI)

Barker, Richard (GI)

Barker, Robert(IT)

Baxter, John (MT)

Bowyer, Sir Edmund(LI)

Bowyer, Robert (MT) (1605-10 only)

Boys, John (MT)

Brocke, William (IT)

Bromley, Edward (IT) (to Feb. 1610)

Brooke, Christopher (LI)

Brooke, Thomas (IT)

Carew, Sir George II (MT)

Cheke, Thomas I (LI)

Members elected in 1628 who failed to pay the Forced Loan or refused to serve as Loan Commissioners

PC: summoned before the Privy Council to explain refusal

Failed Candidates 1604-29

Officers of the Commons and Chairmen of standing committees

Speaker

Principal Officeholders 1603-29

The following lists have been compiled largely from published sources and are more accurate than those to be found in the Handbook of British Chronology. Where it has proved necessary to consult manuscript material, references are provided. A list of the lord wardens of the Cinque Ports will be found in our article on the Cinque Ports.

Addressing the assembled electors for Cheshire in early February 1624 the county sheriff, Sir Richard Grosvenor, reminded his listeners that the task of choosing knights of the shire was a serious business, as ‘we put into their hands in trust our lives, our states and that which should be dearer to us than both, our religion’.The Pprs. of Sir Richard Grosvenor, 3. As elected representatives, Members of the Commons were both the mouthpieces of their constituents and the guardians of their interests.

Under the Tudors it was clearly understood that the right to manage the Commons, like the right of summons and dissolution, lay exclusively with the monarch.