Paul Wentworth (1533–1593), a prominent 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 of ...
(1559, 1563 and 1572
) in the reign of
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
, was a member of the
Lillingstone Lovell branch of the family.
Life
His father Sir Nicholas Wentworth (died 1557) was chief porter of
Calais
Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...
. Paul Wentworth was of
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
sympathies, and he first came into notice by the freedom with which in 1566 he criticized Elizabeth's prohibition of discussion in parliament on the
question of her successor.
Paul, who was probably the author of the famous puritan devotional book ''The Miscellanie, or Regestrie and Methodicall Directorie of Orizons'' (London, 1615), died in 1593. He became possessed of
Burnham Abbey
Burnham Abbey was a house of Augustinian canonesses regular near Burnham in Buckinghamshire, England. It was founded in 1266 by Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall. The abbey of St Mary consisted of around twenty nuns at the outset, but was never weal ...
through his wife, to whose first husband, William Tyldesley, it had been granted at the
dissolution of the monasteries by
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
.
His brother
Peter Wentworth
Sir Peter Wentworth (1529–1596) was a prominent Puritan leader in the Parliament of England. He was the elder brother of Paul Wentworth and entered as member for Barnstaple in 1571. He later sat for the Cornish borough of Tregony in 1578 and ...
was also a prominent Puritan. The significance of both Paul and Peter Wentworth has in the past been exaggerated. In reality, although they did contend for
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
(for which they were both imprisoned), neither had any impact. Graves refers to them as "standard bearers without an army" as they had no significant following.
References
1533 births
1593 deaths
Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall
Paul
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
English religious writers
16th-century English writers
16th-century male writers
16th-century Protestants
English MPs 1559
English MPs 1563–1567
English MPs 1572–1583
English male non-fiction writers
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