WENDY, Thomas (1614-73), of Haslingfield, 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

1661 - 17 Nov. 1673

Family and Education

b. 8 Feb. 1614, 1st s. of Francis Wendy of Wolston, Warws. by Elizabeth, da. of Nicholas Wentworth of Lillingstone Lovell, Oxon. educ. Balliol, Oxf. 1631; G. Inn 1633; travelled abroad 1636-8. m. Letitia (d. 17 Apr. 1696), da. of Sir Francis Willoughby of Wollaton, Notts., 2s. d.v.p. suc. fa. 1615, uncle in Haslingfield estate 1623; KB 23 Apr. 1661.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Cambs. 1638-9, commr. for assessment 1640-1, 1048, Aug. 1660-d., disarming recusants 1641, militia 1648, Mar. 1660, j.p. Mar. 1660-d.; commr. for oyer and terminer, Norf. circuit July 1660-d.; dep. lt. Cambs. c. Aug. 1660-d., commr. for corporations 1662-3, loyal and indigent officers 1662, complaints, Bedford level 1663, pontage, Cambridge 1663.2

Biography

Dr Thomas Wendy, physician to Henry VIII, founded the family fortunes, acquiring Haslingfield in 1541 and sitting for the county in 1555. Wendy, a ship-money sheriff, was in Orleans in 1641; a noted bibliophile, he may have spent the Civil War abroad. His sympathies were royalist; though he was appointed to two local commissions in 1648, he held no other office till the eve of the Restoration, when he was elected knight of the shire as one of the candidates standing for the restoration of King and Church. A moderately active Member of the Convention, he was named to fifteen committees, including those for the indemnity bill, the drainage of the fens, and the militia and attainder bills. He was re-elected in 1661, and made a knight of the bath for the coronation. Lord Wharton marked him as a friend in the Cavalier Parliament, in which he was again moderately active. He was appointed to 69 committees, including most of those concerned with poor relief and the repair of highways. In 1663 he was named to the committee on the bill for settling the drainage of the Bedford level, and made a commissioner of complaints. An Anglican, he served on the committees for the conventicles bills in 1664, 1669 and 1670, and for the bill to prevent the growth of Popery in 1671. Although presumably a court supporter his name does not appear on any list. He died on 17 Nov. 1673, and was buried at Haslingfield, the last of his family. The estate was inherited by his nephew, the elder brother of Robert Steward; but he bequeathed his library to Balliol, besides augmenting the living of Haslingfield and providing for a charity school.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: M. W. Helms

Notes

  • 1. C142/348/100; Wards 7/68/173; Le Neve’s Knights (Harl. Soc. viii) 17; PC2/45/467; N. and Q. cxcvi. 288-90.
  • 2. C. H. Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, iii. 316, 513; Camb. Antiq. Soc. Procs. xvii. 105; East Anglian, n.s. ii. 334.
  • 3. Lysons, Cambs. 208; Add. 15854, f. 193; Cal. Cl. SP, iv. 657; Mon. Inscriptions from Cambs. 77; PCC 134 Bunce.