CHICHESTER, Sir Arthur, 3rd Bt. (c.1662-1718), of Youlston, Devon

Chichester’s family had been established in the Barnstaple area since the 14th century. Sir Arthur, a younger son, began his involvement in the town’s affairs soon after coming of age, and in 1685 was elected to James II’s Parliament. As a Tory, he was blacklisted as having voted during the Convention against the transfer of the crown. He stood down in 1690, apparently without any intention of seeking election in the future, since he promptly sold his manor of Raleigh, with its commanding interest in Barnstaple, to Arthur Champneys*, and thereafter made Youlston his seat. He was dismissed from the commission of the peace in 1696, presumably for refusing to sign the Association. His ostracism in the county seems to have lasted until April 1703 when he was appointed a deputy-lieutenant. In the summer of 1713 he delighted in the prospect of a Tory landslide, declaring that there would not be ‘two Whigs in all Devonshire, where all differences are very happily settled’, and was himself returned once more for Barnstaple. He was classed as a Tory in the Worsley list; and on 20 May 1714 was granted six weeks’ leave of absence. Retaining his seat in the 1715 election, he died on 3 Feb. 1718 and was buried at Pilton, a short distance from Barnstaple.2 Luttrell, Brief Relation, iii. 243; CSP Dom. 1703–4, p. 278; Bodl. Ballard 18, ff. 49–50.