STRICKLAND, Robert (1600-1671), of Sizergh Castle, Westmld. and Brafferton, Yorks.

At the age of only 12 Strickland inherited an estate encumbered with debts, which was managed during his minority by his mother, who bought his wardship for £441 3s. 4d.17C.B. Phillips, ‘Gentry in Cumb. and Westmld. 1600-65’ (Lancaster Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1973), pp. 233-4. Never free from financial stringency, he seems nevertheless to have retained his estate unimpaired. Although his younger bothers were sent to Douai, and his mother-in-law was a recusant, his own religion was not in doubt, and he was elected knight of the shire for Westmorland at the first opportunity after coming of age, in 1624.18Hornyold, 107-8; H. Aveling, Northern Catholics, 280. He left no trace on the records of the fourth Jacobean Parliament. For the rest of his life he seems to have lived almost entirely in Yorkshire, representing Aldborough in the Long Parliament until disabled as a royalist.19M.F. Keeler, Long Parl. 354-5. He died intestate, and was buried at Brafferton on 14 Apr. 1671. His portrait survives in a private collection.20Hornyold, opp. 111, 117. His eldest son Sir Thomas served in the Cavalier Parliament for Westmorland until 1677.