Sir Edward Stephens (1597 – c. 1670) of

Little Sodbury Little Sodbury is an English village in South Gloucestershire, located between Chipping Sodbury, to the West, Old Sodbury to the South, Badminton, and the A46 road to the East and Horton and Hawkesbury Upton, to the north. The "manor of Sodbur ...

, Gloucestershire was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

variously between 1640 and 1660. Stephens was the eldest son of Thomas Stephens of Over Lipiatt who was the Prince of Wales's attorney-general. He became a student of

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1612.W R Williams ''Parliamentary History of the County of Gloucester''
/ref> He was the brother of John Stephens Stephens was appointed

High Sheriff of Gloucestershire This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Gloucestershire, who should not be confused with the Sheriffs of the City of Gloucester. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (in England and Wales the office previously kn ...

for 1634 and elected in November 1640

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Tewkesbury Tewkesbury ( ) is a medieval market town and civil parish in the north of Gloucestershire, England. The town has significant history in the Wars of the Roses and grew since the building of Tewkesbury Abbey. It stands at the confluence of the Ri ...

in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

. The election resulted in a double return and was declared void, but he was returned again in 1641.History of Parliament Stephens, Edward (1597-c.1661) of Little Sodbury, Glos
/ref> He sat until 1648 when he was excluded under

Pride's Purge Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England. Despite defeat in the ...

and imprisoned. In April 1660, Stephens was elected MP for

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

in the Convention Parliament. He was knighted on 11 July 1660. Stephens died in or around 1670 at Little Sodbury. He had married Anne Crewe, daughter of Sir Thomas Crewe of Stene, Northamptonshire and was succeeded by his son Thomas. His daughter Temperance married

Robert Packer Robert Packer (12 September 1614 – 25 February 1682) of Shellingford, Berkshire was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1646 and 1679, as well as being Usher of the Exchequer. Packer was the eldest ...

MP.Date accessed: 18 March 2011 'Parishes: Shellingford', A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4 (1924), pp. 475-478
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Edward 1597 births 1670 deaths High Sheriffs of Gloucestershire Year of death uncertain Members of the Middle Temple People from Tewkesbury English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1660 Politicians from Gloucestershire