William Owfield (1 July 1623 – 1664) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1645. Owfield was the eldest son of Sir Samuel Owfield, of Upper Gatton, Surrey and Covent Garden, and his wife Katherine Smith, daughter of William Smith, Mercer, of Thames Street, London. His father was a City of London merchant who represented Gatton in parliament. History of Parliament Online - William Owfield
/ref> Owfield was admitted at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

on 1 October 1639. He inherited the estates of his father in 1643. In October 1645, Owfield 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 of ...

for Gatton in 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 ...

and sat until 1648 when he was secluded under Pride's Purge. He was a commissioner for assessment for Lincolnshire from 1645 to 1650 and became commissioner for defence for Lincolnshire in 1645. In 1647 he became a J.P. for Lindsey Lincolnshire and a commissioner for assessment for Surrey. He was a commissioner sequestration for Surrey and a commissioner for militia for Surrey and Lincolnshire in 1648. Owfield was commissioner for sewers for Lincolnshire from 1658 to 1659. From March 1660 he was JP for Lincolnshire again and commissioner for militia for Surrey and Lincolnshire. In April 1660 he stood for parliament at Gatton again, but was involved in a double return and the election was declared void. He was commissioner for sewers for Lincolnshire in 1660 and commissioner for assessment for Lincolnshire from August 1660 until his death. In 1661 he was elected MP for Gatton in the Cavalier Parliament and sat until his death in 1664. He became commissioner for assessment for Surrey in 1661 until his death. Owfield died at the end of October 1664. Owfield married firstly Mary Thompson, daughter of

Maurice Thomson Maurice Thomson (1601/04–1676), of St Andrew's parish, Eastcheap, City of London and of Haversham in Buckinghamshire, was an English merchant, slave trader and Puritan, said to be "England's greatest colonial merchant of his day". He obtained a mo ...

(d.1676), merchant, of Mile End Green, Middlesex on 13 Nov. 1655 and had two sons. He married secondly by licence on 13 May 1662, Anne Hawkins, daughter of William Hawkins of Mortlake, Surrey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owfield, William 1623 births 1664 deaths English landowners Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge People from Surrey (before 1889) People from Lincolnshire English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1661–1679 Commissioners for sewers