Family and Education

bap. 1 May 1577, o.s. of Jerome Weston of Roxwell by his 1st w. Mary, da. of Anthony Cave of Chicheley, Bucks. educ. Trinity Coll. Camb. BA 1594; M. Temple 1594; travelled abroad. m. (1) Elizabeth (d.1603), da. of William Pinchon of Writtle, Essex, 1s. 2da.; (2) c.1604, Frances (d.1645), da. of Nicholas Walgrave of Borley, Essex, 4s. inc. Jerome Weston 1da. Kntd. 1603; suc. fa. 1603; KG 1630; cr. Baron Weston 1628, Earl of Portland 1633.

Offices Held

Collector of petty customs in the port of London 1616; jt. comptroller of the navy 1619; PC 1621; ambassador to Brussels 1622; chancellor and under-treasurer of the Exchequer 1621-8, acting treasurer May-Dec. 1624; commr. Virginia 1624; ld. treasurer 1628; jt. ld. lt. of Essex 1629, Hants 1631-3; 1st commr. of Admiralty 1628, 1632; high steward, Exeter 1630; v.-adm. Hants 1631; capt. I.o.W. 1631-3; bencher, M. Temple by 1633.

Biography

Weston was born at Chicheley, his mother’s house, of a distinguished Catholic family, whose pedigree has been somewhat obscured by an elaborate seventeenth-century fabrication. Through his local family influence he was returned for Maldon in 1601. He became, under the Stuarts, a national figure concerned with problems of diplomacy and finance. Clarendon described him as a ‘man of big looks and of a mean and abject spirit’. He received the last rites from a Catholic priest, died on 13 Mar. 1635 and was buried in Winchester cathedral.

CP; DNB; Morant, Essex, ii. 71; Vis. Essex(Harl. Soc. xiii), 125, 318; C142/286/167.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: W.J.J.

Notes

• 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
• 2. Ibid.