Sir John Cutts (c.1581–June 1646) was an English 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 1604 and 1640.

Life

Cutts was the son of Sir John Cutts of

Childerley Childerley, also known as Great Childerley and Little Childerly, was a small rural village in the county of Cambridgeshire in the East of England, United Kingdom. The population is included in the civil parish of Caldecote. Village history Chil ...

,''Childerley: Manors'', A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 9: Chesterton, Northstowe, and Papworth Hundreds (1989), pp. 41-44. Date accessed: 15 February 2011
/ref> who was keeper of the park at

Somersham Somersham is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Somersham lies approximately east of Huntingdon and north of St Ives. Somersham is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as ...

. His mother was Margaret Brocket, daughter of Sir John Brocket of

Brocket Hall Brocket Hall is a neo-classical country house set in a large park at the western side of the urban area of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England. The estate is equipped with two golf courses and seven smaller listed buildings, apart fro ...

Hatfield, Hertfordshire Hatfield is a town and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, in the borough of Welwyn Hatfield. It had a population of 29,616 in 2001, and 39,201 at the 2011 Census. The settlement is of Saxon origin. Hatfield House, home of the Marquess of ...

. Cutts was educated at Queen Elizabeth

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

in Barnet, Hertfordshire. In 1598 he was sent to work in the British Embassy in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Home in England he is chiefly remembered for razing the villages of Great and Little Childerley to make way for a deer park (which was seen as an "improvement"). Cutts was knighted at the Charterhouse on 11 May 1603 Cutts was a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

1614 to 1616. Thereafter he held some unusual posts many of which relate to birds or agriculture: commander of swan upping in Cambridge;

oyer and terminer In English law, oyer and terminer (; a partial translation of the Anglo-French ''oyer et terminer'', which literally means "to hear and to determine") was one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat. Apart from its Law French name, the ...

for

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

; commander of bridges in Cambridge; commander of sewers in the Great Fens; commander of enclosures; delivery of gaols for Cambridge and Ely; preservation of the royal

game birds Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often ...

; collector of the Privy Seal loan; receiver of the Fen Drainage tax; commander of the poll tax for

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

; collector of Irish aid for Cambridgeshire; sequestrator of delinquents. In 1604 Cutts was elected

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

and was re-elected in 1614. In 1615 he was awarded an honorary MA at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

on the visit of King James I. He was

High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

in 1619. In 1621 Cutts was re-elected MP for Cambridgeshire and was elected again in 1624, 1625 and 1626. He was appointed

Custos Rotulorum of Cambridgeshire This is a list of people who have served as Custos Rotulorum of Cambridgeshire. The office was created in 1368, at which time the Isle of Ely, Huntingdonshire and the Soke of Peterborough did not form part of the county. * Sir John Hynde bef. 154 ...

from 1621 to 1636. He was last elected MP for Cambridgeshire in April 1640 in the Short Parliament. Cutts lived at Childerley and died in June 1646 and was buried in the family vault at

Swavesey Swavesey is a village lying on the Prime Meridian in Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 2,463. The village is situated 9 miles to the north west of Cambridge and 3 miles south east of St Ives. Listed as ''Suauesye'' in the Domesday ...

. After his death in 1646 (buried July 1646) his widow Anne controlled the whole estate until their son John came of age in around 1655. Charles I spent the night at Childerley on 6–7 June 1647 when he was brought by Cromwell's soldiers after being captured at Holdenby Hall, in Northamptonshire.

Family

Cutts married twice.Firstly in March 1632 to Anne Kempe daughter of Sir

Thomas Kempe Thomas Kempe was a medieval Bishop of London. Kempe was the nephew of John Kemp John Kemp ( – 22 March 1454, surname also spelled Kempe) was a medieval English cardinal, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor of England. ...

Olantigh Olantigh is an English house north of Wye in the civil parish of Wye with Hinxhill. The garden terraces and towered stable block were Grade II listed in 1989 and extend to , beside the Great Stour river. Garden features include a wide variet ...

Wye, Kent Wye is a village in Kent, England, from Ashford and from Canterbury. It is the main settlement in the civil parish of Wye with Hinxhill. Hop varieties including Wye Challenger were bred at Wye College and named for the village. In 2013, '' ...

. Anne died in childbirth later the same year. In December 1632 he married Anne Weld (d.1659), daughter of Sir John Weld of St Olave,

Old Jewry Old Jewry is a one-way street in the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. It is located within Coleman Street ward and links Poultry to Gresham Street. The street now contains mainly offices for financial companies. The ...

, London, on 13 December 1632. They had sons John who was created a baronet in 1661 and Henry.John Burke, John Bernard Burke ''A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies''
/ref>

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Cutts, John 1646 deaths High Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire English MPs 1604–1611 English MPs 1614 English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1640 (April) Year of birth uncertain