Sir John Pakington, 2nd Baronet (13 August 1621 – 1680) of

Westwood House Westwood House is a stately home, near Droitwich, Worcestershire, England. It has been subdivided into twelve self-contained apartments. The house has origins as an Elizabethan banqueting hall with Caroline additions and is a Grade I listed bu ...

, near Droitwich, Worcestershire 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 ...

at various times between 1640 and 1679. He supported the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

Biography

He was the son of

Sir John Pakington, 1st Baronet Sir John Pakington, 1st Baronet (1600–1624) was an English baronet and M.P. for Aylesbury in 1623–24. Biography John was the only son of John Pakington (died 1625). He was created a baronet in June 1620, and sat in Parliament for Aylesbury in ...

and his wife Frances Ferrers, the daughter of Sir John Ferrers of Tamworth. His father and grandfather died when he was very young and he became the ward of Thomas Coventry, later Lord Coventry. He succeeded his father to the baronetcy in 1624 and his grandfather to his Westwood estate in 1625. In April 1640, Pakington 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

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

in the Short Parliament. He was elected MP for Aylesbury for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

in November 1640. He was disabled from sitting on 20 August 1642 for executing a commission of array for

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

. He served the King during the

but was captured and imprisoned in the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...

. He appeared at the muster before the

Battle of Worcester The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 in and around the city of Worcester, England and was the last major battle of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A Parliamentarian army of around 28,000 under Oliver Cromwell d ...

, and was in consequence tried for treason, but no one would testify against him, probably because he had been captured by the Scots. He was nevertheless fined again. After the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

Pakington was again a Justice of the Peace. In 1661, he was re-elected MP for Worcestershire in the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

and sat until 1679. He was instrumental in opposing an alleged plot by

Andrew Yarranton Andrew Yarranton (1619–1684) was an important English engineer in the 17th century who was responsible for making several rivers into navigable waterways. Biography He was born at Astley, just south of the town of Stourport-on-Severn in Worce ...

and other Presbyterians, though they claimed (apparently successfully) that the plot was fabricated. Pakington died at the age of 58.

Family

Pakington married Dorothy Coventry, daughter of his guardian Lord Coventry, with whom he had one son and two daughters. He was succeeded by his son Sir John Pakington, 3rd Baronet

References

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Pakington, Sir John, 2nd Baronet 1621 births 1680 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England Cavaliers Prisoners in the Tower of London English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1661–1679 Members of the Parliament of England for Worcestershire