BERTIE, Hon. Richard (c.1637-86), of Creeton, Lincs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1685 - 19 Jan. 1686

Family and Education

b. c.1637, 3rd s. of Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey, by 1st w.; bro. of Hon. Charles Bertie, Hon. Peregrine Bertie I and Robert Bertie I, half-bro. of Hon. Henry Bertie I. educ. travelled abroad 1649-?53; M. Temple 1660. unm.1

Offices Held

Capt. of horse [I] 1663-at least 1680; capt. indep. tp. June-Dec. 1685.2

Commr. for assessment, Lincs. 1673-80; j.p. Lincs. and Northants. 1680-d.; freeman, Woodstock 1680, Oxford 1685.3

Biography

Bertie was sent out of the country after the execution of Charles I and travelled on the Continent with his elder brother Peregrine. In September 1653 the King recommended him to the Duke of York, with whom he served under Turenne. At the Restoration he was admitted to the Middle Temple, but he did not pursue his legal studies, receiving a commission in the Irish army from the Duke of Ormonde. His brother described him as of unblemished integrity, both to church and state, signal loyalty and obliging candour, and he was hospitable to his neighbours, despite apparently limited means. At the general election of 1685 he was returned for Woodstock on the interest of his half-brother, the 1st Earl of Abingdon. He was a moderately active committeeman, being appointed to the committee of elections and privileges and to six others, including that to recommend expunctions from the Journals. On Monmouth’s landing he raised a troop of horse and took an active part in operations against the rebels. ‘The King calls my brother Dick his old fellow-soldier, and intends him more than a troop’, wrote Charles Bertie. But he lost his commission in December, with two of his brothers, for voting against the grant of dispensations to Roman Catholic officers. He died in his fiftieth year on 19 Jan. 1686, ‘a stout, worthy, honest English gentleman’, and was buried at Edenham.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Leonard Naylor

Notes

  • 1. Gent. Mag. lxxviii. 19
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 537; HMC Ormonde, i. 279; n.s. v. 506-7.
  • 3. Woodstock council acts 1679-99 (6 Sept. 1680); Oxford Council Acts (Oxford Hist. Soc. n.s. ii), 170.
  • 4. Cal. Cl. SP, ii. 257; PCC II Lloyd; Clarendon Corresp. i. 134-5, 139-40; HMC Rutland, ii. 97, 102 Add. 38012, f. 3.