Sir William Masham, 1st Baronet (c. 1592 – c. 1656) 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 ...

variously between 1624 and 1655.

Life

Masham was the only son of William Masham of

St Botolph without Aldgate St Botolph without Aldgate was an ancient parish in the metropolitan area of London. The parish was partly within the City of London and partly in the County of Middlesex. Each part operated as a separate parish for civil administration with its ...

, London and educated at

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(1607) and the

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(1610). Masham was created

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on 20 December 1621. 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

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced ...

in 1624, 1625 and 1626 and for

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in place of Edward Alford in 1628 after a petition. In April 1640, Masham was elected MP for

in the

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and then for

Essex Essex () is a Ceremonial counties of England, county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the Riv ...

in November 1640 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 Septe ...

. He was re-elected MP for Essex in 1654 for the First Protectorate Parliament. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of

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and Sir Francis Barrington of Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, and the widow of Sir James Altham of Mark Hall, Latton, Essex. They had three sons (of whom at least one predeceased him) and a daughter.

References

* 1590s births 1650s deaths Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Members of the Inner Temple Baronets in the Baronetage of England English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1654–1655 Members of Parliament for Maldon {{England-baronet-stub