GEE, William (c.1648-1718), of Bishop Burton, Yorks.

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

Constituency

Dates

Dec. 1701

Family and Education

b. c.1648, 1st s. of William Gee of Bishop Burton by 1st w. Rachel, da. of Sir Thomas Parker of Willingdon, Suss. m. (1) 23 Feb. 1664, Elizabeth (d.1684), da. of Sir John Hotham, 2nd Bt., of Scorborough, Yorks., 5s. 6da.; (2) settlement 8 Oct. 1685, Elizabeth, da. of Charles Cracroft of Louth, Lincs., wid. of John Ellerker of Risby, Yorks., 1s. 2da. suc. fa. 1678.1

Offices Held

Commr. for concealments, Yorks. 1671; j.p. Yorks. (E. Riding) 1672-80, ?1689-d., dep. lt. 1673-?80, 1689-?d.; commr. for assessment (E. Riding) 1673-80, 1689-90, Hull 1690; lt.-col. of militia ft. (E. Riding) ?1691-d.2

Biography

Gee was descended from an Elizabethan merchant who was three times mayor of Hull. His great-grandfather sat for the borough in 1589. The family were reckoned among the puritan gentry at this time, but Gee’s father played little part in politics, being nominated only to the committee for the northern association in 1645 and the militia committees of 1648 before going abroad. On the Continent he associated chiefly with exiled Cavaliers; his second wife was the eldest daughter of Richard Spencer, and he held no further office until the eve of the Restoration. At the age of 16 Gee married his cousin, who was four years younger, and strengthened his links with the country party. He was defeated for Hull at the first election of 1679, and his petition, although supported by his father-in-law and other friends, brought him no satisfaction. But he was successful in September, and removed as j.p. in the following year. He was probably totally inactive in both the second and third Exclusion Parliaments. He contested Hull again in 1685, but was easily defeated. On Monmouth’s landing orders were given for his arrest as a dangerous and disaffected person. Some time before the Revolution he was in Holland with Hotham and William Harbord, doubtless plotting the success of the projected invasion. ‘A bitter enemy to the King’, he came over with the Dutch in December 1688, having sworn with his associates ‘that they would never lay down arms till they made the Prince of Orange king’. He was returned to the Convention but served only on the committee of elections and privileges, and on 15 May 1689 he was allowed leave of absence for three weeks. He did not support the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations, but he was listed as a Whig under Anne. He was buried at Bishop Burton on 15 Oct. 1718, the last of his family to sit in Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: P. A. Bolton

Notes

  • 1. Clay, Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. iii. 24, 263; Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. 1) 275.
  • 2. Cal. Treas. Bks. iii. 912; Add. 29674, f. 161v; SP44/165/278; Eg. 1626, f. 55.
  • 3. J. T. Cliffe, Yorks. Gentry, 269; Verney Mems. i. 478, 491-2; ii. 18; CSP Dom. 1685, p. 228; HMC 7th Rep. 412, 424; Bodl. Fleming mss 3334.