Sir Richard Tichborne, 2nd Baronet (1578 – April 1657) 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 1597. He was a

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 gove ...

commander 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 ...

. Tichborne was the oldest son of

Sir Benjamin Tichborne, 1st Baronet Sir Benjamin Tichborne, 1st Baronet (c. 1542 – 6 September 1621) was an English landowner, courtier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1588 and 1593. Biography Tichborne was the son of Nicholas Tichborn ...

of Tichborne and his second wife Amphillis Weston, daughter of Richard Weston,

justice of the common pleas Justice of the Common Pleas was a puisne judicial position within the Court of Common Pleas (England), Court of Common Pleas of England and Wales, under the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Chief Justice. The Common Pleas was the primary court o ...

. The Tichbornes were one of the leading

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

families in the county, but like his father and brothers, Tichborne outwardly conformed to the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

. However, his career at Court was damaged when he was denounced in the

by Sir Daniel Norton on 27 April 1624 for the

recusancy Recusancy (from ) was the state of those who remained loyal to the Catholic Church and refused to attend Church of England services after the English Reformation. The 1558 Recusancy Acts passed in the reign of Elizabeth I, and temporarily repea ...

of his second wife and children. His situation was made more difficult by his inability to stay out of debt, mainly caused by his wish to be noticed at the Court of James I. His brother was

Walter Tichborne Walter Tichborne (c.1580–1637) of Aldershot in Hampshire was MP for Petersfield from 1614 to 1621. Early life and marriage He was born in about 1580, the second son of Sir Benjamin Tichborne, (died 1629), the first Tichborne baronet of ...

Aldershot Aldershot ( ) is a town in the Rushmoor district, Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme north-east corner of the county, south-west of London. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Farnborough/Aldershot built-up are ...

. Richard Tichborne was a student of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1595. In 1597 he was elected Member of Parliament for

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis ( ) is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and ...

. He was knighted at the Charter House on 11 May 1603. George Edward Cockayne ''Complete Baronets Vol 1'' 1900
/ref> In 1604 he became joint keeper of

Winchester Castle Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1067. Only the Great Hall still stands; it houses a museum of the history of Winchester. History Early history Around AD 70 the Romans constructed a ...

with his father. He was a ranger of West Beare forest by 1610. In 1614 he was elected MP for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

. He was elected MP for

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

in 1621 and was re-elected in 1624, 1625, 1626 and 1628. He was again presented for his wife's

on 20 March 1626 but regardless the king appointed him Deputy Lieutenant for Hampshire by 1627.''Proceedings'' (1626), ii. 139, 321, 323; iii. 140, 146; iv. 214 His wife's recusancy was complained of once more on 14 June 1628. He succeeded to the family estates and the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

on the death of his father on 11 September 1629. In the same year he built a sub-manor at

, which was later sold and which in 1808 became Aldershot Workhouse. He became a

gentleman of the bedchamber Gentleman of the Bedchamber was a title in the Royal Household of the Kingdom of England from the 11th century, later used also in the Kingdom of Great Britain. A Lord of the Bedchamber was a courtier in the Royal Households of the United Kingdo ...

to Charles I. In 1622 to 1623 he accompanied his cousin Sir Richard Weston on a diplomatic mission to

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, in the

Spanish Netherlands The Spanish Netherlands (; ; ; ) (historically in Spanish: , the name "Flanders" was used as a '' pars pro toto'') was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of t ...

, and may also have visited

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. History of Parliament Online - Richard Tichborne
/ref> During the Civil War, Tichborne was a Royalist commander and held Winchester Castle for the King. His estates were sequestrated on 30 September 1650. Memorial St Michaels Aldershot

Tichborne died at the age of 79. Tichborne married firstly Ellen White, oldest daughter of Sir Robert White of

. She died on 18 May 1606, aged 27 and he married secondly on 7 July 1608, Susan Waller, daughter of William Waller of Oldstoke and Stoke Charity. They had three sons and three daughters. His son Henry Tichborne succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 1657 and also inherited his father's considerable debts - said by his father in 1650 to have been £15,000.Walter, John
Tichborne, Sir Henry, third baronet (bap. 1624, d. 1689)
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...

'' (ODNB) online Henry Tichborne set about restoring the family's fortunes, and by the time of the Restoration in 1660 he had restored his income to about £1,000 a year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tichborne, Richard 1578 births 1657 deaths English MPs 1597–1598 English MPs 1614 English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1626 English MPs 1628–1629 Cavaliers 17th-century English diplomats Ambassadors of England Baronets in the Baronetage of England Politicians from Aldershot Tichborne baronets

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...

Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Lyme Regis