Sir Justinian Isham, 2nd Baronet (1610 – 2 March 1675) was an English scholar and royalist politician. He was also a Member of Parliament and an early member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Life

He was admitted a

fellow-commoner A commoner is a student at certain universities in the British Isles who historically pays for his own tuition and commons, typically contrasted with scholars and exhibitioners, who were given financial emoluments towards their fees. Cambridge ...

at Christ's College, Cambridge, on 18 April 1627. Isham was a man of culture, building a library at

Lamport Hall Lamport Hall in Lamport, Northamptonshire is a fine example of a Grade I Listed House. It was developed from a Tudor Manor but is now notable for its classical frontage. The Hall contains an outstanding collection of books, paintings and furnitu ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

Brian Duppa Brian Duppa (also spelled Bryan; 10 March 1589 – 26 March 1662) was an English bishop, chaplain to the royal family, Royalist and adviser to Charles I of England. Life He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, graduati ...

was a frequent correspondent of his; and he kept in touch with Seth Ward in Oxford. He was a patron of Alexander Ross. Loans to the king as well as fines to the parliament had greatly injured the Isham estates, when in 1651, Sir Justinian succeeded to the Isham baronetcy. He had been in prison for a short time during 1649, as a

delinquent Delinquent or delinquents may refer to: * A person who commits a felony * A juvenile delinquent, often shortened as delinquent is a young person (under 18) who fails to do that which is required by law; see juvenile delinquency * A person who fa ...

, and he was now forced to compound for the estate of Shangton in Leicestershire. After the Restoration he was elected M.P. for

in the parliament which met in 1661. Gilbert Clerke dedicated to him a 1662 work of

natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science. From the ancient wo ...

. With

Henry Power Henry Power (1623–1668) was an English physician and experimenter, one of the first elected fellows of the Royal Society. Life Power matriculated as a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1641 and graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1644 ...

he was elected to the Royal Society, shortly after its 1663 charter came into force. He died at Oxford, on 2 March 1675, and is buried in the family burial place on the north side of the chancel in Lamport Church, where there is a Latin inscription to his memory.

Family

He was only son of Sir John Isham (1582–1651), by his wife Judith, daughter of William Lewin, of Otterden, Kent. When he was baptised on 3 February 1610, he took his Christian name from his mother's brother, Sir Justinian Lewin, knt. Elizabeth Isham, known for her autobiography, was his sister.''Elizabeth Isham's Autobiographical Writings''
/ref> Isham was married on 16 November 1634 to Jane, eldest daughter of Sir John Garrard, baronet, of Lamer, Hertfordshire; but his wife died in childbirth on 4 March 1638. Isham then wooed

Dorothy Osborne Dorothy Osborne, Lady Temple (1627–1695) was a British writer of letters and wife of Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet. Life Osborne was born at Chicksands Priory, Bedfordshire, England, the youngest of twelve children of Sir Peter Osborne, Lie ...

; but she found him pompous. Isham's second wife, whom he married in 1653, was Vere, daughter of Thomas, Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh, by Mary, daughter of

Sir Thomas Egerton Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, (1540 – 15 March 1617), known as 1st Baron Ellesmere from 1603 to 1616, was an English nobleman, judge and statesman from the Egerton family who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor for twenty-on ...

. Four children by her survived him: Sir Thomas Isham, 3rd Baronet; Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Baronet (d. 1730); Mary (d. 1679), who married Sir Marmaduke Dayrell of Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire; and Vere, an erudite young mathematician who died in 1674, aged 19. There also survived him three daughters by his first wife: Elizabeth (d. 1734), who married Sir Nicholas L'Estrange of Hunstanton, Norfolk, second baronet, and nephew of Sir Roger L'Estrange; Judith, who died unmarried, and was buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...

on 22 May 1679; and Susanna, who was married on 4 May 1656 to Sir Nicholas Carew, kt.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Isham, Justinian 1610 births 1675 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society English MPs 1661–1679 Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Baronets in the Baronetage of England Cavaliers