Sir Thomas Chicheley (25 March 1614 – 1 February 1699) of Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire was a politician in England in the seventeenth century who fell from favour in the reign of

James II James II may refer to: * James II of Avesnes (died c. 1205), knight of the Fourth Crusade * James II of Majorca (died 1311), Lord of Montpellier * James II of Aragon (1267–1327), King of Sicily * James II, Count of La Marche (1370–1438), King C ...

. His name is sometimes spelt as Chichele. Wimpole Hall 2014-03-19 (1)

Life

He was born the eldest surviving son of Thomas Chicheley (1578–1616) of Wimpole and was related to

Henry Chichele Henry Chichele ( , also Checheley; – 12 April 1443) was Archbishop of Canterbury (1414–1443) and founded All Souls College, Oxford. Early life Chichele was born at Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire, in 1363 or 1364; Chicheley told Pope Euge ...

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

and founder of All Souls College, Oxford. He succeeded his father to Wimpole Hall, the largest house in Cambridgeshire. He was

High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire This is a list of sheriffs and since 1974 high sheriffs of Cambridgeshire. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of th ...

for 1637–38, and in 1640 was elected to the Long Parliament as one of the MPs for Cambridgeshire. However, being a strong Royalist, he was "disabled from sitting" (in other words expelled) soon after the outbreak of the Civil War. After the Restoration, he was elected once more for Cambridgeshire in the Parliament of 1661–1679, and subsequently sat for the city of Cambridge until his retirement after the Convention Parliament (1689). History of Parliament Online - Chicheley, Thomas
/ref> He was appointed a deputy lieutenant for the county by 1639 to 1642 and from 1660 to 1685. He was also custos rotulorum for the county in 1642 and, after the restoration in 1660, for Cambridgeshire and Ely (until 1687). In 1670, he was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

, made a member of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

and appointed Master-General of the Ordnance. He held that office until 1679, when he was succeeded by three Commissioners of the Ordnance, including his son John. The same year he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, but was ejected from office and expelled from the Privy Council on 2 March 1687 by James II. He sat again, however, in Parliament for the city of Cambridge in 1678, 1679, 1685, and 1689, and died in 1699, at the age of eighty-four. According to Pepys, Chicheley lived extravagantly in London, and this was probably the reason that he was forced to sell his Wimpole estate to Sir John Cutler thirteen years before his death. He had married Sarah, the daughter of Sir William Russell, and had 3 sons (who all predeceased him) and 2 daughters. After Sarah's death in 1654 he married again ''circa'' 1655 to Anne, the daughter of Sir Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry of Aylesborough and the widow of Sir William Savile, 3rd Baronet, of Thornhill, Yorkshire and had 2 further sons.

References

;Attribution * * D Brunton & D H Pennington, ''Members of the Long Parliament'' (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954) 1614 births 1699 deaths People from Wimpole Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster Members of the Privy Council of England Knights Bachelor Lords of the Admiralty English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1661–1679 English MPs 1679 English MPs 1680–1681 English MPs 1681 English MPs 1685–1687 English MPs 1689–1690 High Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire Deputy Lieutenants of Cambridgeshire People expelled from the Privy Council of England {{17thC-England-MP-stub