CECIL, Richard (1570-1633), of Wakerley, Northants.

Cecil sat once only in Parliament in this period, for Westminster, where his grandfather was high steward. No record has been found of any contribution to the business of the House. In September 1594 he and his younger brother Edward were given leave to travel abroad. Some two years later he wrote, in Italian, from Florence to his uncle Robert expressing his devotion and apologising for not writing more. In April 1599 he again asked his uncle to procure him leave to go abroad, as ‘befits a younger brother’, which suggests that the request was connected with the licence his elder brother William received to go to Italy in June the same year. This foreign travel would account for Richard Cecil’s absence from the last two Parliaments of the reign. He died on 4 Sept. 1633.1HMC Hatfield, v. 70; ix. 131; Vis. Northants. ed. Metcalfe, 78-9; CP, v. 218-19; CSP Dom. 1595-7, p. 295; 1598-1601, p. 223; 1603-10, p. 362; Montagu Musters Bk. ed. Wake (Northants. Rec. Soc. vii), 79; Salisbury State Pprs. ed. Murdin, 805.