Sir Orlando Gee (c.1619 - 1705 ) was an English

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 ...

, serving as joint MP for the

Cockermouth Cockermouth is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England, so named because it is at the confluence of the River Cocker as it flows into the River Derwent. The mid-2010 census estimates state that Cocke ...

constituency from March 1679 to March 1681, 1685 to 1687 and 1690 to 1695.

Life

He was the fourth son of Sarah Mogridge and her husband John Gee (died 1631), the latter being parish priest of

Dunsford Dunsford is a village in Devon, England, just inside the Dartmoor National Park. The place-name 'Dunsford' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ''Dunesforda'', meaning 'Dunn's ford'. The village has a number of ...

, Devon, making Orlando brother to the cleric and anti-Catholic writer

John Gee John Laurence Gee (born 1964) is an American Latter-day Saint scholar, apologist and an Egyptologist. He currently teaches at Brigham Young University (BYU) and serves in the Department of Near Eastern Languages. He is known for his writings in ...

. In the 1650s he began to ally himself with the

House of Percy A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air co ...

in general and

Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (13 August 16622 December 1748), known by the epithet "The Proud Duke", was an English peer. He rebuilt Petworth House in Sussex, the ancient Percy seat inherited from his wife, in the palatial form which ...

in particular. His first marriage on 18 May 1662 was to Elizabeth Maxey, widowed daughter of Sir William Maxey of Bradwell-next-Coggeshall in Essex. In September 1660 he became joint registrar to the Admiralty Court, a post he held until becoming sole registrar two years later, holding the latter post until his death. That post and his first election as MP in 1690 both resulted from his alliance with the Percys. On 18 August 1682 he was knighted and on 7 August the same year he married a second time to Anne Chilcot, heir and daughter to Robert Chilcot of Isleworth. Both marriages were without issue. His only notable intervention 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 ...

during his first term was to safeguard his own business interests in two paper mills in Buckinghamshire from a perceived threat from a bill promoting production of white paper, but neither of two clauses moved to mitigate this passed the House. He went on to be appointed to draft bills regarding the militia and preventing escapes from the

King's Bench Prison The King's Bench Prison was a prison in Southwark, south London, England, from medieval times until it closed in 1880. It took its name from the King's Bench court of law in which cases of defamation, bankruptcy and other misdemeanours were hea ...

and Fleet Prison. Few speeches by him survive, all from the 1692-1693 session of Parliament and all demonstrating his support for the Court faction. He opposed attempts to replace the Admiralty commissioners in a 21 November 1692 debate and seconded a motion on 19 January the following year that the 6th Duke of Somerset's chaplain give the annual sermon commemorating the

execution of Charles I The execution of Charles I by beheading occurred on Tuesday, 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall. The execution was the culmination of political and military conflicts between the royalists and the parliamentarians in E ...

. He initially supported the Triennial Bill but had turned against it by the time of a speech on 2 February 1693 in which he stated it was "an invasion on the oyalprerogative". He was granted indefinite leave of absence from Parliament due to poor health on 23 February 1694, retiring at the 1695 election and leaving legacies to charity totalling £10,000 in his will, including £500 to rebuild All Saints' Church, Isleworth. He died in 1705 and is buried in All Saints Church in Isleworth with a monument by

Francis Bird Francis Bird (1667–1731) was one of the leading English sculptors of his time. He is mainly remembered for sculptures in Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral. He carved a tomb for the dramatist William Congreve in Westminster Abbey and ...

.Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gee, Orlando 1619 births 1705 deaths English MPs 1679 English MPs 1685–1687 English MPs 1690–1695