Hicks was the pre-eminent purveyor of silks and other fine fabrics in late Elizabethan and Jacobean England, accumulating a fortune estimated at £20,000 in 1605.1 Cal. Wynn Pprs. 57. As his career progressed he moved into money-lending and land purchases. The latter were particularly concentrated in Gloucestershire, where he built a magnificent house at Chipping Campden.2 L. Stone, Crisis of the Aristocracy, 534-5, 555; VCH Glos. viii. 136, 239.
Hicks was a significant supplier of textiles and credit to the crown. In May 1626 he loaned £10,000 to Charles I, despite being owed an equivalent amount by the late king, James I. It is likely that both loans were still outstanding in 1628 and, although there is no evidence that he ever relinquished his claims to them, Hicks may have been ennobled in return for accepting that his money would not be repaid for some time to come.3 R. Ashton, Crown and the Money Market, 20n.47, 73-4; APC, 1625-6, pp. 466-7. His ennoblement as Viscount Campden in May 1628 necessitated a by-election at Tewkesbury, which Gloucestershire borough Hicks had represented on his own interest in four consecutive parliaments.
By the time Hicks was elevated to the Lords, all of his sons were dead. Consequently, his patent of creation specified that his titles would descend, on his death, to his eldest daughter’s husband, Edward Noel*, Lord Noel (subsequently 2nd Viscount Campden). The latter was a client of the favourite George Villiers*, 1st duke of Buckingham, and probably acted as an intermediary in obtaining his father-in-law’s viscountcy. Indeed, the title was presumably intended as a promotion in reversion for Noel, as well as an honour for Hicks.4 47th DKR, 115; C.R. Mayes, ‘Sale of Peerages in Early Stuart Eng.’, JMH xxix. 33; R. Lockyer, Buckingham, 53-4.
Campden was introduced to the Lords on 8 May 1628 by Edward Cecil*, Viscount Wimbledon, and fellow financier, Paul Bayning*, 1st Viscount Bayning.5 Lords Procs. 1628, p. 394. He was excused four days later, but returned to the House on the 19th. In total he was recorded as attending 30 of the 38 sittings (79 per cent) between 8 May and the prorogation of the session on 26 June, but made no recorded speeches and received no committee appointments. Campden remained a consistent attender in the 1629 session, when he was recorded as present in the Lords chamber 78 per cent of the time (18 out of 23 sittings). However, his only mention in the parliamentary records is on the first day of the sitting, when Dudley Carleton*, newly created Viscount Dorchester, was seated next to him.6 LJ, iv. 6a.
Campden’s health probably started to decline soon after the dissolution in March 1629. His funeral sermon, preached by John Gaule, stated that he had been ill ‘many months together’ before his death in October 1629, and he described himself as ‘sick in body’ when he made his will on the 12th of that month. In accordance with his wishes he was buried in the church of Chipping Campden where a monument was erected to his memory. Both the monument and Gaule’s sermon extolled his charitable bequests, estimated at £10,000 or £11,000, in addition to his ‘private alms’, which certainly totalled over £7,000. He gave significant sums towards the maintenance of preaching ministers, but there is no evidence that he was dissatisfied with the established Church.7 PROB 11/156, ff. 330v-32; J. Gaule, Defiance to Death (1630), 40, 42, 43; Stow, i. pt. 1, pp. 287-8; W.K. Jordan, Charities of London, 343.