BRISCOE, William (c.1606-88), of Lincoln’s Inn and Crofton, Cumb.

Briscoe’s family had been established by the 13th century on the manor from which they took their name and which they subsequently alienated to the Church. But they acquired Crofton, some ten miles from Carlisle, and began to represent the city in the reign of Richard II. Briscoe himself, a professional lawyer, acted as steward to the 4th Lord Wharton and became one of the staunchest Parliamentarians in the county. He bought back Briscoe at the sale of capitular lands, and represented Cumberland in the Protectorate Parliaments.3Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. Soc. Trans. xl. 50; Northern Hist. v. 46.

Briscoe was returned for Carlisle at the general election of 1660. He was classed as a friend by his employer, whose religious proclivities he doubtless shared and received a copy of the case for modified episcopacy with objections and answers. On 4 July he spoke against an amendment to the indemnity bill to compel Cromwellian officials to refund their salaries. ‘Such rigours’, he said, ‘would confound men, whereas mercy would convert them’. But he was not active in the Convention; his only committees were on the bills for the confirmation of college leases (8 Aug.), the endowment of vicarages (7 Nov.), and the supply of defects in the Poll Act (3 Dec.). He was obliged to relinquish his purchase, and never stood again, withdrawing from public life in 1662. He died on 25 Feb. 1688, the last of the family to sit in Parliament.4Bowman diary, f. 51v; Account of Cumb. (Cumb. and Westmld. Antiq. Soc. Tracts, ii), 86.