Family and Education

b. c.1616, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Sir Francis Egioke of Shurnock Court, teller of the Exchequer, by Eleanor, da. of Francis Dyneley of Charlton, Cropthorne. educ. L. Inn 1634-5. m. settlement 6 July 1652, Mary (d.1652/3), da. and coh. of Richard Cresheld^†, serjeant-at-law, of Mattishall, Norf., wid. of William Draper of May Place, Crayford, Kent, s.p. suc. fa. 1622.1

Offices Held

Member of county committee, Worcs. 1645, j.p. 1647-50, 1654-d., commr. for assessment 1648-52, 1657, Jan. 1660-1, militia 1648, Mar. 1660.2

Biography

Egioke came from an old but undistinguished Worcestershire family. They took their name from a small manor in Inkberrow, and were regarded as gentry from the 15th century, though they did not purchase the freehold till about 1590. A cousin sat for Tamworth in 1601, but the most enterprising of the family was Egioke’s father, who acquired a post in the Exchequer and a knighthood from the new dynasty. In 1609 he sold most of his freehold land, but without severing his local connexions. He leased property from the dean and chapter of Worcester, and served as recorder of Evesham till his death.3

Egioke, who was allowed to succeed to his father’s estate without an inquisition post mortem, took no active part in the Civil War till 1645, when, together with Sir Thomas Rous, he was added to the county committee by order of the House. He helped to negotiate the surrender of Worcester in the following year, and committed himself to the new order by buying the freehold of Shurnock Court at the sale of capitular lands in 1650. But his father-in-law, Cresheld, resigned from the judicial bench in protest against the King’s trial, and Egioke himself was probably a Presbyterian and no friend to the Protectorate. In 1655 the ‘teacher of the parish’ of Feckenham (later to be Egioke’s executor) was described as ‘a desperate enemy’ of the regime.4

Although Cresheld had died in 1652, his long service to Evesham as recorder (in succession to Egioke’s father) and as MP in five Parliaments must have been responsible for Egioke’s return at the top of the poll in the contested election of 1660. Lord Wharton marked him as a friend, to be influenced by Thomas Foley I, and he probably voted with the Opposition. He was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges, and added to the committee to bring in two declarations against Papists, but made no recorded speeches. Shurnock of course reverted to the dean and chapter at the Restoration, but Egioke’s lease was not affected. His freehold estate was reduced to two or three messuages in Inkberrow, and he was not named to the assessment commission of 1661, though he witnessed the Evesham return at the general election, and remained on the commission of the peace. He was buried at Inkberrow on 22 Dec. 1663. He sought to entail his property on two cousins of his own name, but Shurnock passed to the family of his eldest sister, the Bearcrofts.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / John. P. Ferris

Notes

• 1. Vis. Worcs. (Harl. Soc. xxvii), 52; C8/320/61; PCC 215 Brent.
• 2. Diary of Henry Townshend (Worcs. Hist. Soc.), iii. 229.
• 3. VCH Worcs. iii. 425; Nash, Worcs. ii. 7; CSP Dom. Add. 1580-1625, p. 446; Keeler, Long Parl. 146; PCC 5 Swann.
• 4. CJ, iv. 55; Diary of Henry Townshend, i. 197; VCH Worcs. iii. 117; Thurloe, iii. 212.
• 5. Misc. Gen. et Her. (ser. 3), v. 202; Add. 34738, ff. 53-58.