MARIET, Thomas (1631-91), of Whitchurch, Warws. and Alscott, Glos.

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

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. 24 Feb. 1631, 1st s. of William Mariet of Whitchurch by Anne, da. of William Faldoe of London. educ. I. Temple 1647. m. (1) bef. 1653, Lucy Anne (d. 29 Oct. 1681), da. of Sir Richard Brawne of Alscott and coh. to her bro. Richard, 5s. 3da.; (2) lic. 28 July 1685, Hester (d. 24 June 1686), da. of Edward Leche of London, wid. of Sir Thomas Overbury of Bourton on the Hill, Glos., s.p.; (3) lic. 11 Sept. 1688, Grace, da. of Sir Richard Shuckburgh of Shuckburgh Hall, Warws., wid. of (Sir) John Bernard, 2nd Bt. of Brampton Park, Hunts., s.p. suc. fa. 1636.1

Offices Held

J.p. Worcs. July 1660-81, Glos. 1664-80, 1689-d., Warws, Mar.-Nov. 1679; commr. for assessment, Warws. Aug. 1660-80, 1689-90, Glos. 1664-80, Worcs. 1689, recusants, Glos. and Worcs. 1675; sheriff, Warws. 1677-8.

Biography

Mariet’s great-grandfather came from Surrey and purchased the manor of Whitchurch in 1584. According to Mariet’s friend John Aubrey, during the Interregnum he and Edward Massey ‘held correspondence with his Majesty, who wrote them letters with his own hand, which I have seen’. In 1660 Mariet was one of those who brought up the address of the Warwickshire gentry for a free Parliament. He stayed with Aubrey in the Middle Temple, while he and Massey were ‘tampering’ with George Monck. Despite the fact that his first wife brought him the manors of Preston-on-Stour and Alscott with a rental of £500 p.a., he was already beginning to borrow heavily shortly after the Restoration, and his financial position continued to be precarious.2

As sheriff of Warwickshire during the Popish Plot, Mariet was called upon to arrest the local Roman Catholic antiquary, Ralph Sheldon, who acknowledged that he had been ‘very courteous and civil to me in this time of my confinement’. But Mariet had country sympathies and stood for Warwickshire as an exclusionist candidate in the first election of 1679, though he avoided partnership with the more radical John Stratford. After his defeat he was removed from the commission of the peace. A petition for his reinstatement presented to the custos rotulorum from ‘several of the freeholders and inhabitants’ of Kineton hundred had no effect.3

At the general election of 1681 Mariet was invited by Richard Booth to stand for Warwick in his place, but he preferred to contest the county again. He still refused to join with any other candidate, even Sir Richard Newdigate. Sir John Mordaunt wrote to Mariet after the final county meeting:

I cannot pretend, Sir, to advise you in this concern. You know best what your interest is and how to make use of it. The generality of the gentlemen, I believe, will not appear at the election, nor take it ill that you do so.

He was returned unopposed with Newdigate, but left no trace on the records of the Oxford Parliament.4

After 1681 Mariet did not stand again, though Richard Coote suggested that he might contest Tewkesbury with the support of the local Baptists. After the Rye House Plot six muskets hidden between two floors were discovered in his house at Alscott, while affidavits were taken to the effect that a greater quantity had been conveyed away at night by coach. In consequence he was summoned to appear before the Privy Council. Secretary Jenkins wrote to the Duke of Beaufort:

there are two Mariets, father and son, that live ... between Gloucester and Warwickshire (upon the confines of both) that are reported very disaffected men. The father was examined the other day before the King for hiding arms; he had the skill to lay it upon his son, who is now sent for, and the father dismissed.5

Mariet died in April 1691. His will, in which he cut off his widow with one shilling, did not fully reveal the extent of his indebtedness, and it was a number of years before his tangled affairs could be sorted out. None of his descendants entered Parliament.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: A. M. Mimardière / Basil Duke Henning

Notes

  • 1. J. H. Bloom, Hist. Preston-upon-Stour, 38, 42-45, 48-49; C142/559/107; Dugdale, Warws. i. 635; Mar. Lic. (Harl. Soc. xxx), 208; (xxxi), 79.
  • 2. VCH Warws. v. 210; HMC 7th Rep. 483; Aubrey, Brief Lives, i. 130, 151, 239; ii. 75; Add. 34739, ff. 332, 338-9, 344, 346.
  • 3. Add. 34730, ff. 30-33, 40; 34739, f. 364; J. R. Jones, First Whigs, 96.
  • 4. Add. 34730, ff. 64-67, 69-75.
  • 5. Ibid. ff. 87-96; CSP Dom. July-Sept. 1683, pp. 92, 147-8, 190, 200-1, 214; SP44/68/349.
  • 6. Bloom, 44; Add. 34743, ff. 53, 62, 94-101; PCC 70 Vere.