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Sir Richard Onslow (1601 – 19 May 1664) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1628 and 1664. He fought on the Parliamentary side during the English Civil War. He was the grandson of one Speaker of the House of Commons and the grandfather of another, both also called Richard Onslow.^[1]

Life

Young life

Onslow was the younger son of Sir Edward Onslow of Knowle (in Cranleigh), Surrey, and his wife Isabel (Elizabeth), daughter of Sir Thomas Shirley of Wiston, West Sussex. He was baptized on 30 July 1601. He had an elder brother Thomas (the heir), and three sisters. His father died in 1615, appointing Elizabeth his executrix and residuary legatee. To Richard was bequeathed an annuity of £100 per annum from manors and estates in Gloucestershire.^[2]

The manor of Bramley (with lands in Bramley, Shalford, Wonersh and Dunsfold), was left in the hands of overseers to provide annuities for the sisters in their minorities, and then to be sold by them, with an option for Thomas Onslow to purchase for £2000 within three years.^[2] On 10 September 1616 Thomas Onslow and his mother settled the manors of Cranleigh, Knowle, Holdhurst and Utworth (lying also in Guildford, Hascombe and Cranleigh) on his intended marriage with Mary daughter of Sir Samuel Lennard. However he died childless in December 1616, possibly before the marriage itself took place.^[3] Richard's three sisters, all unmarried at their father's death, proceeded to respectable marriages.^[4]

Richard matriculated as a Fellow-Commoner at Jesus College, Cambridge in 1617, and was admitted at Lincoln's Inn in 1618.^[5] He married Elizabeth, daughter of Arthur Strangways, produced his first child by 1621, and was knighted on 2 June 1624. In 1628 he was elected Member of Parliament for Surrey, and sat until 1629 when King Charles I began to rule without parliament for eleven years. In 1630 his mother Elizabeth died leaving him all her freehold land and the residue of her estate, and giving a silver chafing-dish to Richard's wife.^[6] In November 1638 he was a deputy-lieutenant for the county of Surrey.^[7]

Civil War period

Onslow was elected MP for Surrey in April 1640 for the Short Parliament and in November 1640 for the Long Parliament. In 1642, the lodge in Clandon Park, West Clandon, and the Park itself, formerly enclosed but since disemparked, was sold to him by Sir Richard Weston and was now re-emparked: he purchased Temple House at Merrow, with the advowson of Merrow church, but not the Temple manor.^[8]

When the Civil War broke out in 1642, he commanded the Surrey Trained Bands at the start of hostilities, then raised a regiment for Parliament, leading his men at the siege of Basing House in 1644.^[9]

Being of moderate views, he was one of the members excluded from Parliament in Pride's Purge in December 1648. In 1650 he recommenced a series of transactions which led much later (1711) to the acquisition of the manor of West Clandon.^[8] In 1654, he was elected again MP for Surrey in the First Protectorate Parliament. He was re-elected MP for Surrey in 1656 for the Second Protectorate Parliament. In 1658, he was elevated to Cromwell's new House of Peers.

Restoration period

He returned to the Commons in April 1660 as MP for Guildford in the Convention Parliament, where he worked closely with his more influential friend Sir Anthony Ashley-Cooper to bring about the Restoration of the Monarchy. He was re-elected MP for Guildford in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament and sat until his death in 1664.^[9] He was elected one of the original Bailiffs to the board of the Bedford Level Corporation in 1663, a position he held briefly until his death.^[10]

Death

His death in 1664 took place in mysterious circumstances at Arundel House in London. It was announced to have been owing to an "ague" which developed into gangrene. However, Lucy Hutchinson, whose husband John Hutchinson had recently been imprisoned as a Regicide, believed Onslow to be her enemy for having denounced her husband in parliament: she is said to have heard that Onslow had been struck by lightning,^[11] an allegation widely believed in Onslow's family. He was buried at Cranleigh, Surrey,^[9] where his tomb remained until the church restoration of 1845, with that of his wife Elizabeth, who was buried there in 1679 aged 78.^[12]

Portrait and heraldry

The Surrey Visitation of 1623^[4] shows arms for this family as follows, Quarterly of six:
1. Onslow: Argent, a fesse gules between 6 "falcons" sable, belled and armed or.
2. Kynaston: Argent, a lion sable.
3. Frankton: Gules, on a chevron or 3 mullets sable.
4. Bond: Argent, on a chevron sable three bezants.
5. Houghton: Azure, three bars and a canton argent.
6. (blank)
Crest (Onslow): A falcon as in the arms, preying on a partridge or.

The Victoria County History blazons for Onslow: Argent a fesse gules between 6 Cornish choughs.^[8]

A portrait of Sir Richard Onslow, painted in the style of Robert Walker, was held by the National Trust at Clandon Park.^[13]

Family

Sir Richard married Elizabeth Strangeways (c. 1601 – 27 August 1679), daughter and heir of Arthur Strangeways. They had fourteen children:^[14]

Sir Henry Onslow (1621–c. 1667), married Jane Stidolph and had issue
Sir Arthur Onslow, 1st Baronet (1622–1688), also MP for Guildford and Surrey
Elizabeth Onslow (1624 – aft. 1678), married first John Berney of Swardeston and second Sir Francis Wyndham, 3rd Baronet
Anne Onslow (b. 1626), married Sir Anthony Shirley, 1st Baronet
Mary Onslow (b. 1638), married Sir George Freeman
John Onslow (c. January – February 1630^N.S.)
Jane Onslow (1631 – 5 May 1729), married Sir George Croke
Richard Onslow (1632–c. 1712), married Abigail Reynardson, without issue, member of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers
Thomas Onslow (1633 – aft. 1664), died unmarried
Dorothy Onslow (1635–1642)
Catherine Onslow (1636–1659), married Sir Thomas Cobb, 1st Baronet
John Onslow (12 September 1636 – April 1663), died unmarried, member of the Inner Temple
Denzil Onslow (of Pyrford) (c. 1642–1721)
one other child, died young

References

^ Onslow, 'Sir Richard Onslow (1603-1664)', Surrey Archaeological Collections, XXXVI (1925), pp. 58-79 (archaeologydataservice.ac.uk pdf).
^ ^a ^b 'Will of Sir Edward Onslowe of Knowle, Cranleigh, Knight': London Metropolitan Archives, Surrey Wills ref. DW/PA/7/10 ff. 16r-17v; DW/PA/5/1615/98.
^ 'Manors: Holdhurst, with Knowle', in "Parishes: Cranleigh", in H.E. Malden (ed.), A History of the County of Surrey, Volume 3, (VCH, London 1911), pp. 86-92 (British History Online, accessed 20 December 2022).
^ ^a ^b "Onslow", in W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), "The Visitations of the County of Surrey, 1530, 1572 and 1623", Harleian Society Vol. XLIII, pp.154-55 (Internet Archive).
^ J. Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part I vol. 3 (Cambridge University Press, 1924), p. 281 (Internet Archive).
^ 'Will of Elizabeth Onslowe of Knoll, Cranleigh, widow': London Metropolitan Archives, Surrey Wills, ref. DW/PA/7/11 ff. 559r-v; DW/PA/5/1630/76.
^ Shaw, William Arthur (1895). "Onslow, Richard (1601-1664)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 42. pp. 223–224.
^ ^a ^b ^c 'Parishes: West Clandon', in H.E. Malden (ed.), A History of the County of Surrey, Vol. 3 (V.C.H., London 1911), pp. 346-49 (British History Online accessed 28 December 2022): citing Feet of Fines, Surrey, Michaelmas 1650; Recovery Rolls, Michaelas 29 Chas. II, membrane 240, &c.
^ ^a ^b ^c M.W. Helms/J.S. Crossette, 'Onslow, Sir Richard (1601-64), of West Clandon, Surr. and Arundell House, The Strand, Westminster', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 (from Boydell and Brewer 1983), History of Parliament Online. Accessed 28 December 2022.
^ Wells, Samuel. History of the Drainage of the Great Level of the Fens Called ..., Volume 1. p. 485.
^ L. Hutchinson, ed. J. Hutchinson, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson (George Bell and Sons, London 1884), p. 351 (Hathi Trust).
^ Major Heales, 'Cranley', Surrey Archaeological Collections, VI (London 1874), pp. 21-56, at p. 48, citing O. Manning and W. Bray, The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, 3 vols (J. Nichols, 1804-), I, pp. 541, and p. 424, note. Possibly the incised slab dated 1630, with unreadable verses, seen by Heales was a monument to Sir Richard Onslow's mother.
^ 'Sir Richard Onslow (1601-1664)' at ArtUK.
^ Howard, Joseph Jackson; Crisp, Frederick Arthur (1903). Visitation of England and Wales. Vol. 5. p. 191.

Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
Mark Noble, Memoirs of several persons and families... allied to or descended from... the Protectorate-House of Cromwell (Birmingham: Pearson & Rollason, 1784) [1]