FOTHERBY, Charles (1674-1720), of Barham Court, Kent

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1713 - 1715

Family and Education

bap. 7 Apr. 1674, 1st s. of Anthony Fotherby of Barham by Afra, da. of one Aucher of Westwell, Kent.  m. 10 Dec. 1706, Mary, da. and coh. of George Elcock of Madekin, Barham, Kent, 2da.1

Offices Held

Lt. RN, June 1697; capt. Oct. 1702.

Biography

Although the family originally came from Lincolnshire, Fotherby’s great-grandfather, also Charles, and his brother Martin achieved high office in the Church in Kent, the former as archdeacon of Canterbury and the latter as a prebendary of Canterbury and later bishop of Salisbury. Early in James I’s reign his great-grandfather acquired Barham. His own father was the second son of Sir John Fotherby and from extant correspondence he seems to have been involved in managing the estates of the dowager Countess of Thanet. Fotherby’s younger brother went to Eton, but no evidence survives of his own education, with even his date of entry into the navy unknown. Having attained the rank of captain just after the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, he served extensively in the Mediterranean. His marriage in 1706 presumably consolidated his hold on Barham, especially after the death in 1711 of his mother-in-law. He was able to capture a seat at Queenborough at the 1713 election, presumably because he was a naval captain with some local links, and a Tory to boot. Although one of Arthur Charlett’s correspondents wrote of two Churchmen being ‘over-voted, but not by Whigs’ at Queenborough, there is no evidence that Fotherby was anything but a Tory, as he voted for that party ticket in the county election of 1713. He was also classed as a Tory on the Worsley list. However, he was not an active Member and did not stand again after the Hanoverian succession. In August 1715 he was in command of a ship stationed in the Downs in readiness to act against the Jacobites. He died on 1 Aug. 1720, leaving a widow and two daughters, the eldest of whom married, first, Henry Mompesson of Bathampton, Wiltshire, and later, Sir Edward Dering, 5th Bt.†2

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Stuart Handley

Notes

  • 1. IGI, Kent; Vis. Kent (Harl. Soc. liv), 62; J. R. Walbran, Antiquities of Gainford, 87–88.
  • 2. Vis. Kent, 62; Hasted, Kent, ix. 353; Add. 29551, f. 297; 29554, f. 208; 5440, f. 33; HMC Lords, n.s. vii. 430, 433; Navy Recs. Soc. lxviii. 193; lxx. 121–2; Arch. Cant. cvi. 29; Bodl. Ballard 15, f. 107; Centre Kentish Stud. Q/RPe1, 1713 pollbk.; P. Parsons, Monuments and Painted Glass Chiefly in E. Kent, 315.