Thomas Wriothesley KG (1608 - 1667)

Ancestors Descendants

Biography

Lord Wriothesley was born at Little Shelford in Cambridgeshire on 10 March 1608 to Henry Wriothesley and his wife, Elizabeth Vernon. ^[1][2] Educated at Eton and St John's College, Cambridge he became Earl of Southampton on the death of his father in November 1624. James, his older brother had predeceased his father by only a few days.

Rachel.

He married firstly a French widow, Rachel de Beaujeu, daughter of Daniel de Massue at Charenton in France on 18 August 1834. Soon after the wedding he took her to England. Rachel died in childbirth on 16 February 1640 having borne her husband five children, Charles, Henry, Magdalen, Elizabeth and Rachel. Charles, Henry and Magdalen all died young.

Throughout his life he was a strong supporter of the crown and the Church of England but still urged people to come to terms rather than to fight.

His second wife was Elizabeth Leigh, daughter of Francis Leigh, Lord Dunsmore and Audrey Boteler, whom he married in London about 24 April 1642. Elizabeth bore him four daughters, Penelope died 1649, Audrey died 1660, Elizabeth, and another Penelope d1655.

Thomas promised to provide troops for King Charles in June 1642 but even after the King raised his standard at Nottingham on 22 August 1642 he still urged the King to find an accommodation with Parliament. King Charles sent Southampton, together with the Edward Sackville. Earl of Dorset, Sir John Colepeper and Sir William Uvedale to Parliament, but Parliament refused to hear them. Throughout the war Southampton sought for ways to make peace but eventually was one of those who signed the Articles of Capitulation at Oxford on 22 June 1646. For this Prince Rupert challenged him to a duel but common sense prevailed. In the autumn Thomas begged to compound and his fine was set at £6466 and in 1648 he was pardoned by Parliament for his delinquecy.

It was to Titchfield that the King fled in November 1647 and Thomas followed him to the Isle of Wight. He attended the King at his trial at Westminster Hall which began on 20 January 1649 and was present at the King's funeral at Windsor Castle on 8 February. ^[3] (Wikipedia says 9th). ^[4]

Thomas then transferred his loyalty to the King's son, Charles II, and, after the debacle at Worcester in 1651 sent word that he could arrange a ship for him, which offer was declined as Charles already had the offer of a ship. The Earl was imprisoned in the Tower in November 1655 for his refusal to co-operate over taxation which, in his case, he deemed illegal but he was released before the year was out. Thereafter Thomas was left in relatively peaceful possession of his life and property, steadfastly refusing to join in royalist plots though he did keep up a regular correspondence with the exiled Edward Hyde.

Thomas and Frances.

Elizabeth, Countess of Southampton, died late in 1658 leaving only 2 daughters, Audrey and Elizabeth. Still without a male heir Thomas married around 7 May 1659 Frances Molyneux widow of Richard, 2nd Viscount Molyneux and daughter of William Seymour and his wife, Frances Devereux.

With the collapse of republican government in 1660 came the restoration of the monarchy. When Charles II reached Canterbury on 27 May Thomas was appointed to the Privy Council and made a Knight of the Garter and in September was made Lord High Treasurer. He was in agreement with his friend, Edward Hyde, created Earl of Clarendon at the restoration, and became appalled by the profligacy of the court.

His health was becoming troublesome and in late 1663 he was laid up with the gout, ^[5] and by April 1665 he was in despair over his inability to manage the country's finances ^[6] By 1667 he was very ill with the stone ^[7]Thomas died at Southampton House on 16 May 1667.^[8]

Wriothesley tomb.

Thomas was buried with his father and his brother, James, in a vault beneath the monument to his grandfather, Henry the 2nd Earl, and his great grandparents, Thomas the 1st Earl and Jane Cheney in St Peter, Titchfield^[9] He had no male heir so his estates were divided among his surviving daughters, Elizabeth married to Edward Noel, Earl of Gainsborough, Rachel Russell, about to become the widow of Francis, Lord Vaughan died 1677 soon to be wife of William, Lord Russell and Elizabeth wife of Ralph, Duke of Montagu.

Sources

1. ↑ David L. Smith, ‘Wriothesley, Thomas, fourth earl of Southampton (1608–1667)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 21 Oct 2016
2. ↑ Little Shelford History [1](The observation on that site as to why he was imprisoned in the Tower is clearly wrong and the article seems to confuse him with his father)
3. ↑ David L. Smith, ‘Wriothesley, Thomas, fourth earl of Southampton (1608–1667)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 21 Oct 2016
4. ↑ Wikipedia: Charles I [2]
5. ↑ Samuel Pepys 19 November 1663 "My Lord Treasurer we found in his bed-chamber, being laid up of the goute. I find him a very ready man, and certainly a brave servant to the King: he spoke so quick and sensibly of the King's charge. Nothing displeased me in him but his long nails, which he lets grow upon a thick white short hand, that it troubled me to see them."
6. ↑ Samuel Pepys Diary 12th April 1665 "down to my Lord Treasurer's chamber to him and the Chancellor, and the Duke of Albemarle; and there I did give them a large account of the charge of the Navy, and want of money. But strange to see how they held up their hands crying 'What shall we do?' Says my Lord Treasurer, 'Why, what means all this Mr Pepys? This is true you say; but what would you have me to do? I have given all I can for my life. Why will people not lend their money? Why will they not lend the King as well as Oliver? Why do our prizes come to nothing, that yielded so much heretofore?' And this was all we could get and went away without other answer."
7. ↑ Samuel Pepys 29 April 1667 "my Lord Treasurer very bad of the stone."
8. ↑ Samuel Pepys Diary 16 May 1667 "and then we to My Lord Treasurer's, where I find the porter crying, and suspected it was that My Lord is dead; and, poor Lord! we did find that he was dead just now; and the crying of the fellow did so trouble me, that considering I was not likely to trouble him any more anything, I did give him 3s; but it may be, poor man, he hath lost a considerable hope by the death of his Lord, whose house will be no more frequented as before, and perhaps I may never come hither again about my business. There is a good man gone and I pray God that the Treasury may not be worse managed by the hand or hands it shall now be put into; though for certain, the slowness, though he was of great integrity, of this man and remissness, have gone as far to undo the nation, as anything else that has happened; and yet if I knew all the difficulties that he hath lain under, and his instrument Sir Philip Warwicke, I might be brought to another mind."
9. ↑ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol3/pp220-233#h3-0006

• Wikipedia: Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton

• British History online: Newnham Regis

Acknowledgements

• This profile was created through the import of Consolidated Coningsby.GED on 11 March 2011.
• Entered by Janice Hardin, Dec 10, 2011