DEVEREUX, Sir Walter (1592-1641), of Lamphey, Pemb., Essex House, The Strand, Westminster and Chartley, Staffs.

Sir Walter Devereux was the illegitimate half-brother of Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, and spent his life as a member of the Essex household. His only estate was the remote manor of Lamphey in Pembrokeshire, a county where the Essex family had extensive lands, and throughout his life he described himself as of that place, although in fact he alienated even that manor in 1618.4Longleat House, Devereux mss, box 9, 142, 146, 148, 151, 156, 160, 162, 166; F. Green, 'Cuny of Welston and Golden', West Wales Recs. xii, 171. He made no mark on the Parliament of 1614, sat on at least one committee in the assembly of 1624, and sat as an MP for the third time in the Parliament of 1626. Once again, however, he made no impression on its proceedings. In the 1628 Parliament, he was named to two committees, on regulating the lieutenancy and on the purchase of judicial office.5HP Commons, 1604-29, ‘Walter Devereux’.

In 1633, Devereux accompanied his half-brother to Ireland, and in 1636 acquired notoriety by revealing to Essex that he had been cuckolded by Sir William Uvedale* in his absence. His revelations precipitated the collapse of Essex’s marriage, and rendered Devereux odious in the eyes of many in London.6W.B. Devereux, Lives and Letters (2 vols. 1853), ii. 305. In the late 1630s, Devereux was still acting as a land agent for Essex’s Irish estates, splitting his time between Carrickfergus and Essex House in London. He continued to receive petitions and statements of Essex’s receipts and arrears from Ireland until his death.7Longleat House, Devereux mss, vol. 1, 369, 371, 373, 375; vol. 4, 49. His selection for Lichfield in both the Short and Long Parliaments must have been on the interest of the earl of Essex: indeed he can hardly have had any interest of his own. He was elected to the Short Parliament on 26 March 1640, but, running true to form, he made no impression on that assembly, being named to no committees and saying nothing recorded on the floor of the House.8C219/42/2/17. In the Long Parliament, he was rather more active. On 10 November 1640, he was one of a delegation of 40 from the Commons who met with the Lords to confer on the breaches of privilege alleged by the peers: doubtless his close relationship to the earl of Essex recommended him as a member.9CJ ii. 25b. On 2 December, he was on an even larger committee to consider the complaints of London merchants about the king’s administration of the customs, and also that month was named to two further committees, one dealing with petitions from Watford about the Hertfordshire Ship Money sheriff.10CJ ii. 43a, 45b. The other was a sub-committee of the House’s grand committee on religion, which took into consideration a range of petitions on the shortage of qualified ministers.11CJ ii. 54b.

Devereux took the Protestation on 3 May 1641, and on 10 June was appointed to his last committee, to consider disbanding the armies of Scotland and England. It is unlikely that he was able to contribute much to this topic, as he died in London in July, and on 26 July 1641, two days after his burial, the Speaker directed a warrant for a by-election in Lichfield to replace him.12St Clement Danes par. reg.; CJ ii. 224a. He is not to be confused with his kinsman, Sir Walter Devereux of Worcestershire, who helped organize the poll at Worcester for the Long Parliament county election, and acted in support of Sir Thomas Lyttelton* of Frankley.13Procs. LP ii. 681.