RAYMOND, Oliver (d.1679), of Belchamps Walter, Essex.

Originally from Hertfordshire, the Raymonds had been resident in Essex for several generations.21Vis. Essex 1552, 1558, 1570, 1612 and 1634, i. 476, ii. 696. It was not until the late 1620s, however, that this MP’s father, John Raymond, purchased Belchamps Hall, several miles from Sudbury and the Suffolk border, from Sir John Wentworth†.22Vis. Essex 1552, 1558, 1570, 1612 and 1634, ii. 696. The young Oliver Raymond received a conventional education, attending Trinity and Christ’s at Cambridge before proceeding to Lincoln’s Inn to pursue his legal studies. He was called to the bar in 1633, but the death of his father two years later probably made it unnecessary for him to practise as a barrister. He married a sister of William Herries, one of his contemporaries at Christ’s.23Peile, Biographical Reg. i. 357. That it was Raymond who made an agreement with a London merchant, George Scott, for the marriage of his sister, Anne Raymond, in the autumn of 1640 confirms that he had by then assumed the role of head of the family.24Geneal. Gleanings in Eng. ed. Waters, ii. 1287. (Scott died before the marriage took place.)

The impending political crisis helped propel Raymond into local politics. In 1641 he was one of the local gentlemen who signed the return for the Essex by-election and he was also added to the commission of the peace.25C219/43, pt. 1, f. 147; C231/5, p. 459. As Parliament created more and more local committees to organise the war effort, he was soon included on the three other key local commissions – the county standing committee, the assessment commissions, and the committee for the sequestration of delinquents.26SP28/227: warrant, 3 Aug. 1643; A. and O. In 1644, as a member of the standing committee, he helped audit the accounts of the county treasurers.27SP28/227: case of the several gent. 1644. He was also one of the four representatives from Essex who attended the meeting of the Eastern Association at Bury St Edmunds on 30 January 1645 to oppose the planned incorporation of their forces into the New Model army.28Suff. ed. Everitt, 84, 88. This was a concern widely held throughout the Eastern Association and Raymond’s presence at the meeting does not indicate that he had turned against Parliament. Everything else suggests that he was a committed supporter of Parliament who worked hard on its behalf throughout the 1640s. He continued to be named to local office after the execution of the king in 1649.

Raymond’s record in the 1650s is more confusing, there being conflicting evidence for his relations with the government. The first indication that he may have been out of step with the government at Westminster was his removal as a justice of the peace in the spring of 1652.29Essex QSOB ed Allen, p. xxxix. Yet this was only temporary. Nine months later he was again appointed as an assessment commissioner and by 1654 he was back on the commission of the peace.30A. and O; Essex QSOB ed. Allen, p. xxxix. The elections in 1654 gave him his first chance to stand for Parliament, with the result that he was one of the ten men chosen by the Essex electorate to represent them at Westminster. He then failed to make any impact during the five months in which the first protectoral Parliament was in session. His appointment to the committee which was set up to consider how to reduce the burdens imposed on sheriffs and their undersheriffs was his only visible contribution to its proceedings.31CJ vii. 394b. His re-election as one of the Essex MPs in August 1656 seems to have been interpreted by the council of state as part of the general swing of support against the regime, as he and four of the other successful candidates were prevented from taking their seats.32CJ vii. 425a. As before, any exclusion from favour was only temporary and this Parliament later kept him on as one of its assessment commissioners for Essex.33A. and O.

Raymond continued to be named to local office up to the Restoration and beyond. He then used the two elections in 1660 and 1661 to try to regain his place in Parliament. On both occasions the 4th earl of Warwick (Charles Rich*) promoted him as a candidate for one of the Essex county seats in opposition to those put forward by the local royalists, and both times this strategy failed. The mood, whether locally or nationally, was running against him, and his two allies, (Sir) Harbottle Grimston* and Sir John Barrington*, were equally unsuccessful, despite being more substantial figures.34HP Commons 1660-1690. None of this prevented Raymond retaining his local offices during the years immediately following the Restoration and it was only after 1670 that he was again excluded from the commission of the peace.35C213/7, p. 373. This time that exclusion was permanent, although the government nevertheless found it useful to continue appointing him to the assessment commissions.

Raymond lived on until 1679. He was buried in the local church at Belchamps Walter.36Vis. Essex 1552, 1558, 1570, 1612 and 1634, ii. 696. Under the terms of the will which he had drawn up three years before, he excluded his eldest son, St Clere Raymond, from most of his inheritance. The house and lands at Belchamps Walter were left instead to his second son, William (after provision had been made for his wife), while St Clere was only allocated an annuity of £40 and the reversion to some lands at Guestingthorpe.37PROB11/361/10. It was for that reason that St Clere attempted to challenge the validity of the will.38PROB11/360/677. The estates at Belchamps Walter remained in the hands of Raymond’s descendants into the nineteenth century, but no other members of the family followed him in gaining a seat in Parliament.39Burke LG, 1003-4.