Sir Peter Temple, 2nd Baronet (15 October 1592 – 12 September 1653) 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 Bicameralism, 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 ...

from 1640 to 1653. He was a Parliamentarian in the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

Family

Temple was the son of

Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet, of Stowe Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet (9 January 1567 – 10 February 1637) was an English landowner and Member of Parliament. Early life Thomas Temple was the eldest son of John Temple and his wife, Susan Spencer. Although he is said to have been b ...

and his wife Hester Sandys, daughter of Miles Sandys.

Mark Noble Mark James Noble (born 8 May 1987) is an English former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. He is currently the sporting director of Premier League club West Ham United F.C., West Ham United. A fan of the c ...

''The lives of the English regicides: Volume 2''"> ''The lives of the English regicides: Volume 2''
/ref> He inherited the baronetcy on his father's death in 1637. Temple married firstly Ann Throckmorton, daughter of Sir Arthur Throckmorton of Paulerspury, Northamptonshire. He had two daughters by his first wife; the elder, Anne, survived into old age while the younger, Martha, died as a toddler. He married secondly Christian Leveson daughter of Sir John Leveson and they had several children. the eldest, Frances, married the Earl of Londonderry. Sir Peter's eldest son Richard Temple succeeded to the baronetcy. Sir Peter had a longstanding quarrel with his daughter Anne, who married Thomas Roper, 2nd Roper Viscount Baltinglass, without her father's permission. Anne and her husband sued Sir Peter and his heir, Sir Richard, for her inheritance through her mother, Anne Throckmorton Temple.

Public offices

In 1634, he served as High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and was consequently responsible for collecting the controversial

ship money Ship money was a tax of medieval origin levied intermittently in the Kingdom of England until the middle of the 17th century. Assessed typically on the inhabitants of coastal areas of England, it was one of several taxes that English monarchs cou ...

in Buckinghamshire. In April 1640, Temple was elected Member of Parliament for

Buckingham Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of ...

in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

. He was also elected for Buckingham in November 1640 to the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an Parliament of England, English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660, making it the longest-lasting Parliament in English and British history. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened f ...

. He took the side of the Parliamentarians and fought for them in the Civil War. although his wife, Christian, was a Royalist sympathiser. He was nominated to serve as a judge on the court that tried Charles I, but never attended any sessions.

Relationship with father

Sir Peter was accused by his father of "wasting money in gambling, drinking, and other extravagances". He believed that his father favoured his younger brother, John, over him. In the 1620s, when his father was planning to sell some land in order to reduce his debts, Sir Peter, who was himself heavily in debt, went to the Court of Chancery to prevent the sale. Eventually, the legal case between father and son was settled in the 1630s by an arbitrator. Sir Thomas was allowed to sell the land, but he had to make a payment to Sir Peter. Peter's father and mother, Sir

Thomas Temple Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet (January 1613/14 at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England – 27 March 1674 at Ealing, Middlesex) was an English proprietor and governor of Acadia/Nova Scotia (1657–70). In 1662, he was created a Baronet of Nova Sc ...

and Lady Hester Temple, had already made an agreement with Peter in 1625, whereby they vacated the mansion at Stowe by Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, and left Sir Peter to housekeep there. Peter made considerable changes to the building. From 1637 to 1643 Temple lived at No. 2-3 Tavistock Row, Covent Garden.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Temple, Peter 1592 births 1653 deaths Roundheads English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1648–1653 Baronets in the Baronetage of England Temple baronets