John Freke (c. 1591 – 28 November 1641) 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. T ...

between 1614 and 1624. Freke was the son of Sir Thomas Freke of

Iwerne Courtney Iwerne Courtney (), also known as Shroton, is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It lies approximately north-west of Blandford Forum. It is sited by the small River Iwerne between Hambledon Hill to the south-west and t ...

, Dorset and Elizabeth Taylor. He studied at

Hart Hall, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colleg ...

on 31 October 1605, aged 14. He then studied law at the

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 ...

in 1610. In 1614, he 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 o ...

for Wareham. In 1621 he was elected MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. He was re-elected MP for Weymouth in 1624. 'Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714: Flooke-Fyrmin', Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714: Abannan-Kyte (1891), pp. 510-541. Date accessed: 19 November 2011
/ref> He purchased

Cerne Abbey Cerne Abbey was a Benedictine monastery founded in 987 in the town now called Cerne Abbas, Dorset, by Æthelmær the Stout. History The abbey was founded in 987 by Æthelmær the Stout. Ælfric of Eynsham, the most prolific writer in Old Eng ...

from the Crown in 1625 and was knighted in 1631. He was appointed

High Sheriff of Dorset The High Sheriff of Dorset is an ancient high sheriff title which has been in existence for over one thousand years. Until 1567 the Sheriff of Somerset was also the Sheriff of Dorset. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government ...

for January to October, 1636. He married twice: firstly Arundell, the daughter of Sir George Trenchard of Wolveton, Charminster, Dorset, with whom he had a son, who predeceased him and a daughter, and secondly Jane, the daughter and coheiress of Sir

John Shurley Sir John Shurley (died 3 August 1527) was an English noble who held the financial office of Cofferer to the King during the reign of Henry VIII. He was married twice. Firstly to Parnell (or Petronella) Grandford, daughter of John Graunford, ...

Isfield Isfield is a small village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex in England, located north-east of Lewes.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publish ...

, Sussex and widow of Sir Walter Covert of

Slaugham Slaugham () is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It is located to the south of Crawley, on the A23 road to Brighton. The civil parish covers an area of . At the 2001 census it had a population of 2,226 ...

, Sussex with whom he had 2 sons and 2 daughters. His youngest son,

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

was also an MP. His other surviving son George made a very advantageous marriage to Lady Abigail Digby, daughter of

John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol John Digby, 1st Earl of Bristol (February 1580 – 21 January 1653),David L. Smith, 'Digby, John, first earl of Bristol (1580–1653)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008. was an E ...

. His widow remarried the leading statesman

Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles PC (31 October 1598 – 17 February 1680) was an English statesman, best remembered as one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest by Charles I in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War. When fighti ...

. She died in 1666.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Freke, John 1590s births 1641 deaths People from Wareham, Dorset Alumni of Hart Hall, Oxford English MPs 1614 English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1624–1625 High Sheriffs of Dorset