PARTHERICH, Edward (c.1630-1705), of Littleport, Cambs.

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

b. c.1630, 1st s. of Sir Edward Partherich of Bridge, Kent by 1st w. Catherine, da. and coh. of Sir Arthur Throckmorton of Paulerspury, Northants. educ. M. Temple 1648. m. bef. 13 June 1650, Elizabeth (d. 31 Aug. 1703), da. of Robert Draper of Remenham, Berks., at least 1s. suc. fa. 1662.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Ely 1657, Aug. 1660-1, Cambs. 1663-9, Ely and Worcs. 1673-4, Worcs. 1677-8, Cambs., Ely and Worcs. 1679-80, Worcs. 1689; j.p. Ely July 1660-80, Cambs. to 1680; commr. for sewers, Bedford level 1662-3, valuations 1667-8; dep. lt. Cambs. to ?1681.2

Biography

Partherich came from a family of minor Kentish gentry who had been associated with religious radicalism since the reign of Henry VIII. His great-grandfather sat in two Elizabethan Parliaments, and his father, an ardent Puritan, represented Sandwich in the Long Parliament until Pride’s Purge. The Kentish estates had been sold in 1638, and the Partheriches settled in the Isle of Ely, where they took an active technical interest in land reclamation. With the Worcestershire land that came from Partherich’s mother, the family’s income was estimated at £1,300 p.a. Sir Edward Partherich, who had become one of the strongest Royalists among the secluded Members, contested Sandwich successfully in 1660. Partherich inherited 500 acres in the Bedford level, but, perhaps out of mortification at the rejection by the Adventurers of his father’s drainage scheme in favour of Vermuyden’s, took no part in the corporation. He was lord of the manor of Littleport in 1675, when his rights to deodands, felons’ goods and treasure trove were successfully challenged by the bishop of Ely, with Danby’s support. Lady Harley’s correspondent describes him and his son as ‘much commended’, which probably means that they were both Presbyterians, though Partherich himself must have conformed. One or other of them is likely to be the ‘Mr Petchrich’ of the Green Ribbon Club.3

Partherich was returned for the county to the first Exclusion Parliament. A moderately active Member, he was appointed to twelve committees, of which the most important were to take the disbandment accounts and to consider the Lords’ amendments to the habeas corpus bill. He was listed by Shaftesbury as ‘honest’, spoke in favour of calling out one-third of the militia, and voted for exclusion; but he was not otherwise associated with the more controversial issues in 1679. He was defeated in August (on a false return, as he claimed, but his petition was unreported), and again in 1681. He came forward once more, this time as a court candidate, in 1688: ‘the dissenters and many others are entirely satisfied that he is right’. He stood the poll for the fourth time in 1689, but, according to Roger Morrice, ‘was injuriously overborne, and lost it’. These successive electoral reverses must have been expensive. He was pricked as sheriff of Worcestershire in 1693, but did not serve. His later years were spent at Cheshunt, a notable centre of religious dissent, where he was buried on 26 Apr. 1705. He died intestate, and no later member of the family entered Parliament.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. VCH Worcs. iv. 7-8; Bridges, Northants. i. 312; Vis. Berks. (Harl. Soc. lvii), 40, 119; Herts. RO, Cheshunt par. reg.; C6/50/171; E. Suss. RO, Danny mss 875.
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1672-3, p. 238; HMC Lords, ii. 174, 178; S. Wells, Drainage of the Bedford Level, i. 350, 478, 486.
  • 3. Keeler, Long Parl. 298-9; A. M. Everitt, Community of Kent and the Great Rebellion, 105, 145; Hasted, Kent, ix. 288; Cal. Cl. SP, iv. 603; BL Loan 29/183, f. 56; Cal. Treas. Bks. iv. 651-2; Wells, i. 305.
  • 4. Add. 28046, f. 154; R. Morrice, Entering Bk. 2, p. 429; VCH Cambs. iv. 98; C10/397/2; Cheshunt par. reg.; PCC adm. act bk. 1705, f. 106v.