CHARLTON, Francis (1651-1729), of Whitton Court, Salop.

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

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1679
Oct. 1679
1681

Family and Education

b. 27 June 1651, 1st s. of (Sir) Job Charlton (1st Bt.) by 1st w.; bro. of William Charlton. educ. Shrewsbury 1662; L. Inn, entered 1662; St. Edmund Hall, Oxf. 1666. m. (1) bef. 1682, Dorothy, da. and coh. of Lancelot Bromwych, rector of Enville, Staffs., 1s.; (2) 13 Mar. 1707, Mary, da. of Joseph Came, merchant, of London, 2s. 1da. suc. fa. as 2nd Bt. 27 May 1697.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Ludlow 1679, common councilman 1680-5, alderman 1685-Dec. 1688, 1689, mayor 1689-90; j.p. Salop June 1688-9, commr. for assessment 1689-90; sheriff, Salop 1698-9, Herefs. 1708-9.2

Biography

On his grandfather’s death in 1670, Charlton took up residence at Whitton. He has to be distinguished from the Whig conspirator, who came from the Apley branch of the family. He was returned for Ludlow, where his father was recorder, as a court supporter in all three Exclusion Parliaments. Classed as ‘base’ by Shaftesbury, he was absent from the division on the first exclusion bill, and was appointed to no committees. In James II’s Parliament he was chosen for Bishop’s Castle, where his father had acquired substantial property by marriage, but he again took no recorded part in parliamentary proceedings. He must have been regarded as favourably inclined to James II’s ecclesiastical policy, since he was added to the commission of the peace in the summer of 1688. After succeeding to a rent-roll of £1,748 p.a. he received three castaway votes at Ludlow in the first general election of 1701, but he never stood again as a serious candidate, nor does he appear to have sat on the county bench after the Revolution. He died on 21 Apr. 1729 and was buried at Ludford. His nephew, Job Staunton Charlton, sat for Newark as a Whig from 1741 to 1761.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), vii. 33; (set. 4), vi. 64.
  • 2. Ludlow Charters, 205.
  • 3. Ludlow Charters, 329; Trans. Salop. Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), vii. 104; (ser. 4), iii. 4; ix. 59, 61.