James Thynne (politician, 1605)

Longbridge Deverill Manor, where James Thynne lived during the Commonwealth

Sir James Thynne (* 1605 ; † October 12, 1670 ) was an English nobleman and politician who was elected twice as a member of the House of Commons .

origin

James Thynne came from the English Thynne family . He was born as the second, but eldest surviving son of the politician Sir Thomas Thynne and his first wife Mary Tuchet . From June 28, 1620 he studied at Magdalen College , Oxford .

Heir quarrel with his stepmother

His father was a second marriage to Katherine Howard. After his death on August 1, 1639, Thynne inherited Longleat and his father's extensive estates, but his stepmother and half-siblings had received extensive donations from his father so that he did not inherit any cash. He accused his stepmother of having changed the will of his father, who was one of the richest landowners in England, for their own benefit and for their children, leading to a bitter inheritance dispute between him and his stepmother. With an annual income of over £ 6,000, however, he quickly returned to being one of the wealthiest Englishmen , apart from his peers .

Royalist during the Civil War

As the most important landowner in Wiltshire , he was knighted at Berwick on June 23, 1639 during the Episcopal Wars and was elected as MP for Wiltshire to the House of Commons in November 1640. On February 15, 1643 he resigned from this so-called Long Parliament . During the English Civil War he was a member of the so-called Oxford Parliament convened by the King in 1644 , for which he later had to pay a fine after the victory of Parliament. However, citing the Exeter Articels , he only had to pay the moderate fine of £ 4,034.

On June 4, 1640 he had married Isabel Rich, daughter of Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland . His father-in-law was executed as a traitor in 1649, his wife went into exile as an Anglican in 1650 and later lived with Queen Henrietta Maria in Paris. Thynne did not use the magnificent mansion of Longleat during the Commonwealth , but lived with his younger brother Thomas in Richmond or in the smaller mansion of Longbridge Deverill .

MP during the Stuart Restoration

After the fall of the Commonwealth, he became sheriff of Wiltshire in November 1660 and oversaw the conduct of the 1661 general election in the county, in which candidates for the conservative gentry were elected. When the previous MP Charles Seymour inherited the title of Baron Seymour of Trowbridge in 1664 and thus left the House of Commons, Thynne was presumably elected unchallenged as MP for Wiltshire in a by-election in December 1664. In addition, he had taken over the offices of Justice of the Peace for Somerset and Wiltshire in July 1660 , presumably from August 1660 the post of Deputy Lieutenant for Wiltshire and from 1662 that of the Deputy Lieutenant for Somerset. Despite his advanced age, he was represented on numerous committees in the House of Commons, but did not play a significant political role.

Since his marriage had remained childless, his nephew Thomas Thynne inherited his possessions.

Web links

• John P. Ferris: THYNNE, Sir James (c.1605-70), of Longbridge Deverill, Wilts . (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1660–1690)
• Sir James Thynne on thepeerage.com , accessed September 25, 2015.