ALDBURGHE, Richard (1607-48), of Aldborough Hall, Aldborough, Yorks.

The Aldburghes had been landowners in the Aldborough area since the early fourteenth century.14Lawson-Tancred, Recs. Yorks. Manor, 132. Having acquired Ellenthorpe, which they made their principal residence, in 1578, the family bought the manor of Aldborough from the Ditchfield trustees (London property speculators) for £1,474 in 1629.15T. Lawson-Tancred, ‘The township of Ellenthorpe and the Brooke fam.’, YAJ xxxiv. 73; Recs. Yorks. Manor, 10. Their electoral influence depended on their ownership of three of the nine burgages in the borough and lordship over the borough and manorial courts (the father of Edmund Jenings* and Jonathan Jenings* served as their steward until the civil war).16Carroll, ‘Yorks.’, 206; N. Yorks. RO, ZUH, Aldborough manor ct. bks. and pprs. (mic. 1759). Aldburghe was returned, under age, on his grandfather’s interest to the 1625 and 1626 Parliaments, but lost his seat in 1628 to Robert Stapleton†, the elder brother of the future parliamentarian grandee, Sir Philip Stapilton*.17HP Commons 1604-1629, ‘Aldborough’; ‘Richard Aldburghe’; H.E. Chetwynd-Stapylton, ‘The Stapletons of Yorks.’, YAJ viii. 429. Aldburghe’s father, Arthur Aldburghe, was among the Yorkshire gentlemen who was summoned to appear before the privy council in 1630 for refusing to compound for distraint of knighthood.18APC 1630-1, pp. 93, 104.

Aldburghe regained his seat in the elections to the Short Parliament in the spring of 1640, but received no committee appointments and made no recorded contribution to debate. His father was among the signatories to the Yorkshire petition to the king of 12 September, in which, after complaining about Ship Money, illegal billeting and various other ills, the petitioners reiterated the demand made by a group of dissident English peers, late in August, that Charles should summon a Parliament.19Cumb. RO (Kendal), Strickland ms vol. 1608-1700, N38 Car. I. Aldburghe himself seems to have taken no part in the Yorkshire petitioning campaign of 1640 against military charges and other burdens associated with the second bishops’ war. However, he did sign the Yorkshire county indenture on 5 October, returning two of the leading petitioners, the 2nd Baron Fairfax (Sir Ferdinando Fairfax*) and Henry Belasyse, to the Long Parliament.20C219/43/3/89.

Aldburghe was re-elected for Aldborough in the autumn of 1640, but as in previous Parliaments he received no appointments and was apparently inactive in debate. His only notable contribution to the House’s proceedings was on 21 April 1641, when he was one of seven Yorkshire Members to vote against the attainder of the earl of Strafford (Sir Thomas Wentworth†). The other six Members included his brother-in-law Sir George Wentworth II and a ‘Mr Mallory’, who was either his father-in-law William Malory or his brother-in-law John.21Procs. LP iv. 42, 51; Cliffe, Yorks. 328. If the junior place at Aldborough in the Short and Long Parliament elections had gone to nominees of Strafford and the council of the north, as it appears they may have, then the earl would have been on reasonably friendly terms with the Aldburghes.22Supra, ‘Aldborough’. Nevertheles, there is no evidence that they were closely associated with his interest in Yorkshire. Aldburghe’s emergence as a Straffordian did not preclude his taking the Protestation on 3 May.23CJ ii. 133a.

Granted leave of absence on the motion of Henry Darley on 2 August 1641, Aldburghe seems to have abandoned his seat entirely.24CJ ii. 232a; Procs. LP vi. 171. During the winter of 1641-2, he re-affirmed his sympathy with the court’s supporters in Yorkshire, giving encouragement to William Dearlove* in his struggle against Sir William Constable* and Thomas Stockdale* (both close adherents of Ferdinando Lord Fairfax) during the Knaresborough by-election dispute. According to Dearlove, his ‘good friend’ Aldburghe advised him to organise a petition to Parliament from Knaresborough, requesting his admission to the House.25Bodl. Fairfax 32, f. 74.

Aldburghe probably attended the king at York in the spring of 1642, for on 20 May, Secretary of State Falkland (Lucius Carey*) issued a warrant from the court for Aldburghe’s ‘speedy repair’ to Boroughbridge ‘about his majesty’s special affairs’.26Add. 78678, f. 197. These may have included raising troops for the king; and indeed on 17 August, Aldburghe signed a warrant to several constables in the West Riding, requiring them to muster men for the defence of the king and to resist the Scots.27E. Peacock, ‘On some civil war docs. relating to Yorks.’, YAJ i. 95. Having been declared absent without leave on 16 June, he was disabled by the Commons on 6 September for neglecting the service of the House and for signing a royalist petition to Parliament early in August, protesting at the ‘public acts of hostility committed by Sir John Hotham* and the garrison of Hull’.28CJ ii. 626, 754b; LJ v. 273b-274a.

Aldburghe played an important role in the negotiations that brought the earl of Newcastle – the royalist commander-in-chief in northern England – and his forces into Yorkshire late in 1642.29Bodl. Nalson II, f. 183. At some point in October, Aldburghe, Sir Edward Osborne* and two other gentlemen carried a letter from a group of prominent Yorkshire royalists to the earl, requesting his assistance in the defence of the county.30Newcastle Mems. ed. Firth, 189, 191; HMC Portland, i. 70-1. And he was party to the so-called Yorkshire engagement on 13 February 1643, by which the signatories pledged their estates as security on loans for the supply of the earl’s troops – Aldburghe offering the sum of £200.31CCAM 907, 908-9. Aldburghe’s movements during 1643 are not known; but by 27 January 1644 he was at Oxford, where he signed the letter from the Oxford Parliament to the earl of Essex, urging him to compose a peace;32Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 574. In 1646, Aldburghe and his brother-in-law Sir John Mallory were foeffees to uses in the marriage settlement of Sir Thomas Strickland† – the eldest son of Aldburghe’s former colleague as MP for Aldborough, Sir Robert Stryckland, who had also been disabled for royalism.33Nicolson, Burn, Westmld. and Cumb. i. 101.

During the second civil war, Aldburghe and Stryckland served together in the campaign in north-western England under the royalist commanders Sir Philip Musgrave* and Sir Marmaduke Langdale.34Infra, ‘Robert Stryckland’; NAS, GD 406/1/2328. Having travelled (perhaps fled) to the continent during the second half of 1648, Aldburghe was at Rotterdam in October where he died.35SP23/62, pp. 108, 116, 171; CCAM 908. It was possibly no coincidence that he was in the United Provinces when the prince of Wales’s court was at The Hague. He reportedly died intestate, leaving no personal estate.36CCAM 908. His place and date of burial are not known.

The Aldburghes’ financial position was highly precarious by 1640, when Arthur and Richard had debts in excess of £1,500 – and the civil war was to complete their financial ruin.37SP23/62, pp. 103-7, 111; LC4/202, f. 107; Lawson-Tancred, Recs. Yorks. Manor, 11. Their lands were sequestered by Parliament in 1644, and in 1649, Arthur Aldburghe, who was alleged to have assisted the royalists at York, compounded for his and his son’s delinquency, his fine being set at the relatively modest rate of £400.38SP23/62, pp. 166, 168; Yorks. Royalist Composition Pprs. ed. J. W. Clay (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. xviii), 217. To help pay off debts in excess of £3,000, as well as raise portions for his grandchildren, Arthur Aldburghe was obliged to sell off the family’s estates at Aldborough, Ellenthorpe, Humberton and Kirby Hill during the 1650s.39C6/85/128; C10/34/23; C33/210, f. 262; N. Yorks. RO, ZUH, Aldborough manor title deeds and pprs. (mics. 1716, 1729, 1759); Yorks. Royalist Composition Pprs. ed. Clay, 217. Richard Aldburghe was the last of his name to represent Aldborough, although his namesake – probably one of his four sons – was mentioned as a candidate for the borough in 1673.40Reresby Mems. ed. A. Browning, 90.