OAKELEY, William (1635-95), of Oakeley, nr. Bishop’s Castle, Salop.

Oakeley hailed from an extensive family with many branches on either side of Offa’s Dyke. His father was secretary to the lord keeper and bishop of Lincoln (later archbishop of York), John Williams, until the latter’s fall in 1637. In 1628, Richard Oakeley purchased an estate at Lydham worth £100 a year which afforded him sufficient local substance to be appointed to the commission of the peace in 1641. In the civil war, Oakeley senior seems to have hedged his bets, and was protected from the harsher penalties of royalist delinquency by his contribution to Parliament of £100. On 30 November 1645, he applied to compound, and in December was assessed at £500 by the Committee for Advance of Money, and in January 1646, £100 was ordered to be returned to him for over-payment.15CCC 93, 1119; CCAM 657. At the time of his own death in 1653, Richard Oakeley was still working on behalf of those trying to settle the estate of Archbishop Williams, who had died in 1650.16Cal. Wynn Pprs. 328, 330, 333.

William Oakeley’s election to the 1659 Parliament for Bishop’s Castle, his father’s seat in 1624, was his first appointment to any role in government, preceding even his admission to the Shropshire commission of the peace. He made no recorded impact on the assembly. When the Secluded Members returned to the Commons in the closing weeks of the Long Parliament, Oakeley was appointed sheriff of Shropshire, replacing Edward Wareing*, a republican. He was returned to the Convention while holding the office of sheriff, a waiving of the usual protocol. Oakeley’s active parliamentary career only began in 1660. He supported the court, and would have been honoured with a place in the king's order of the royal oak had it come to fruition. His involvement in Parliament was never more than marginal.17HP Commons 1660-1690. He died in 1695 and was buried in Bishop’s Castle, leaving cash bequests of over £8,000.18Crisp, Frag. Gen. n.s. i. 84; PROB11/426/245. None of his family is known to have sat in any later Parliament.