MAINWARING, Edward I (1603-75), of Whitmore, Staffs.

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

Constituency

Dates

1661 - 21 Apr. 1675

Family and Education

b. 7 Apr. 1603, 1st s. of Edward Mainwaring of Whitmore by Sarah, da. and coh. of John Stone, Haberdasher, of Bow Churchyard, London and Bourne Hall, Herts. m. settlement 19 Sept. 1627, Anne, (d.1693), da. and h. of George Lomax of Clifton, Notts., 6s. (2 d.v.p.) 5da. suc. fa. 1647.2

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Staffs. 1647-52, 1657, Jan. 1660-74; j.p. 1647-d.; commr. for militia, Staffs. and Lichfield 1648, Staffs. 1659, Mar. 1660, security 1655-6, oyer and terminer, Oxf. circuit July 1660-?d.3

Biography

Mainwaring was descended from a cadet branch of the Cheshire family which acquired Whitmore, four miles from Newcastle, in 1546. His father represented the borough in the last Parliament of Elizabeth, subsequently serving as mayor in 1609-10 and 1640-1. After his service in the first Parliament of Charles I, Mainwaring appears to have taken no further part in politics in his father’s lifetime. Both were staunch Puritans, but inactive supporters of Parliament in the Civil War, though it was apparently the father who was nominated to the county committee in 1643 and served as sheriff in 1645-6. Mainwaring himself seems to have been sufficiently flexible to remain on the commission of the peace through all the changes of regime from 1647 to his death, and during the Interregnum he bought land in Staffordshire to the value of £4,380.4

Mainwaring seems to have stood for Newcastle in 1660, but was defeated by Samuel Terrick. He regained his seat after an interval of 36 years in 1661, and was listed by Lord Wharton as a friend. In a list of the Staffordshire gentry at this time he was described as prudent and sober, with an estate of £1,000 p.a. He had been ‘of the parliament party, but pretends to be loyal and orthodox’. An inactive Member of the Cavalier Parliament, he was appointed to only 26 committees, of which the most important were on the bill to prevent dangers from schismatics and the uniformity bill. After the first two sessions he was named only to the committee of elections and privileges; but he was probably in opposition when he attended. He seems to have straitened himself by his land purchases and building operations at Whitmore. He was dead by 21 Apr. 1675 when a new writ was ordered.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: A. M. Mimardière

Notes

  • 1. New writ.
  • 2. Mainwarings of Whitmore (Wm. Salt Arch. Soc. 1933), 66-69; PCC 46 Dorset.
  • 3. Wm. Salt Arch Soc. (1912), 334; Thurloe, iii. 648.
  • 4. Mainwarings of Whitmore, 45; T. Pape, Newcastle-under-Lyme in Tudor and Early Stuart Times, 268, 304; Committee at Stafford (Staffs. Rec. Soc. ser. 4, i), 353.
  • 5. Merc. Pol. 12 Apr. 1660; Gentry of Staffs. (Staffs. Rec. Soc. ser. 4, ii), 36; Mainwarings of Whitmore, 69.