EGERTON, Sir Philip (d.1698), of Oulton, Cheshire.

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

Family and Education

5th but 2nd surv. s. of Sir Rowland Egerton, 1st Bt., of Oulton, and Farthinghoe, Northants. by Bridget, da. of Arthur, 14th Lord Grey de Wilton, and coh. to her bro. Thomas. m. by 1656, Catherine (d.1707), da. and h. of Piers Conway of Hendre, Flints., 4s. (2 d.v.p.) 4da. suc. fa. in Cheshire estate 1646; kntd. 23 June 1660.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Cheshire 1654-7, commr. for militia Mar. 1660, j.p. Mar. 1660-2, 1672-?89, capt. of militia horse Apr. 1660, lt-col. 1661-?89; commr. for assessment, Cheshire Aug. 1660-80, 1689, Chester 1677-80, Flints. 1690, corporations, Cheshire 1662-3, loyal and indigent officers 1662, dep. lt. 1665-?89; freeman, Liverpool 1667.2

Biography

Egerton’s ancestors had held land in Cheshire since the 12th century. A cadet branch, established in Staffordshire, represented that county as early as 1429, but Egerton’s grandfather was the first of the family to sit for Cheshire. Egerton’s mother was an ardent Puritan. His father lent the King £1,080 early in the Civil War, a little more than half of what was asked, but ‘never manifested any malignancy’ towards Parliament, which voted him thanks for bringing the news of the surrender of Pontefract in 1645. Egerton succeeded to Oulton on his father’s death, when his elder brother inherited the Northamptonshire and Staffordshire property. He raised a troop of horse for the royalist rising of Sir George Booth in 1659, and was knighted at the Restoration.3

Egerton was active in repressing disaffection in the early years of Charles II. He first stood for Cheshire as a country candidate at a by-election in 1670, yielding to the aspiring courtier Thomas Cholmondeley after three days’ polling, but he was successful at the first general election of 1679. Shaftesbury marked him ‘honest’, and he became an active Member of the first Exclusion Parliament. He made no speeches, but was named to 15 committees, of which the most important were on the bills for security against Popery and to continue the ban on importing Irish cattle. According to Roger Morrice, he disappointed Shaftesbury’s expectations by voting against exclusion. It is not known whether he stood in September, when he was replaced by the exclusionist Sir Robert Cotton, Bt., but he was defeated in 1681.4

After Roger Whitley lost the mayoral election at Chester in 1682, it was reported that all the windows in Egerton’s town house were broken ‘by the rabble’. He helped to search the houses of the leading local Whigs after the Rye House Plot, and regained his seat in 1685. He was again active in James II’s Parliament, serving on 11 committees, including that to recommend expunctions from the Journals. He was reappointed deputy lieutenant in November 1688, and became a non-juror after the Revolution. In 1690 he was imprisoned in Chester Castle as a Jacobite suspect. He died on 15 Aug. 1698 and was buried at Little Budworth. The parliamentary record of this branch of the family was not resumed until 1807, when John Egerton was returned for Chester.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Gillian Hampson

Notes

  • 1. Ormerod, Cheshire, ii. 222; Baker, Northants. i. 621.
  • 2. Ormerod, ii. 221; HMC 3rd Rep. 245.
  • 3. Ormerod, ii. 620; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 999; Committee at Stafford (Hist. Colls. Staffs. ser. 4, i), 153; Whitelocke Mems. i. 483; Cal. Comm. Comp. 3252; CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 440.
  • 4. HMC 10th Rep. IV, 371; CSP Dom. 1665-6, pp. 8, 47; 1670, p. 30.
  • 5. CSP Dom. 1682, p. 472; HMC 3rd Rep. 245; HMC Kenyon, 244.