Family and Education

b. by 7 May 1608,1 1st s. of Robert Bertie, 14th Lord Willoughby de Eresby and 1st earl of Lindsey, and Elizabeth, da. of Sir Edward Montagu* of Boughton, Northants.2 educ. Sidney Suss. Camb. 1623.3 m. (1) 18 Apr. 1627, Martha (with £10,000)4 (d.July 1641), da. of Sir William Cockayne, Skinner, of Broad Street, London, ld. mayor 1619-20, wid. of John Ramsey, 1st earl of Holdernesse, 5s. 3da.;5 (2) c.1650, Bridget (bur. 24 Mar. 1657),6 suo jure Baroness Norris, da. and h. of Edward Wray* of Rycote, Oxon. and wid. of Edward Sackville of Wytham Abbey, Berks., 3s. 1da.7 cr. KB 3 Nov. 1616;8 styled Lord Willoughby 1626-42; summ. to Lords in fa.’s barony of Willoughby de Eresby, 3 Nov. 1640; suc. fa. as 2nd earl of Lindsey 23 Oct. 1642;9 cr. KG 15 Apr. 1661.10 d. 25 July 1666.11

Offices Held

Commr. sewers, River Gleane, Lincs. and Notts. 1625, Lincoln, Lincs. 1627, 1660-4, Fenland 1629-42, Essex and Kent 1642, Bedford gt. level 1662, Herts. Mdx. and Essex 1663, Westminster 1664;12 warden, Waltham Forest, Essex 1626-46, 1660-d.;13 j.p. Lincs. (Holland, Lindsey and Kevesten) 1628-at least 1640, 1660-d. (custos rot. Lincs. 1640, 1660-d.), Essex 1638, Woodstock, Oxon 1660, Saffron Walden, Essex 1660, Cambridge, Cambs. 1660, St. Albans, Herts. 1660, Haverfordwest, Wales 1660-d., Poole, Dorset 1661-d., York, Ainsty, Yorks. 1661, Cawood, liberty, Yorks. 1664;14 dep. lt. Lincs. 1629-c.42;15 commr. swans, Lincs. and elsewhere, c.1629, Lincs. 1635, 1664,16 oyer and terminer, Midland circ. 1629-42, 1660-d., Home circ. 1660-d., Hants and Wilts. 1660-d., Oxford circ. 1660-d., Eastern circ. 1660-5, London 1660-d., Mdx. 1660-d., Northern circ. 1660-d., Lincs. 1661, Bristol, Som. 1664, Herts. 1664;17 exacted fees, Lincoln 1633,18 navigation of river Welland 1634, 1664;19 freeman, Boston, Lincs. 1634;20 steward, honor of Bolingbroke 1640-6;21 commr. array, Lincs. 1642;22 kpr. Woodstock Park, Oxon. 1644-6, 1660-d.;23 ld. lt. Lincs. 1660-d.;24 commr. gaol delivery, Newgate 1664.25

Capt. of ft. (Dutch army) by 1626;26 col. Life Gds. 1639-46;27 col. of horse 1662-6, capt. 1666-d.28

Gent. of privy chamber 1634-43, bedchamber 1643-9;29 ld. gt. chamberlain 1642-d.;30 PC 1643-6, 1660-d.31

Biography

Bertie’s great-grandfather, a Marian exile, married into the Willoughby family and sat for Lincolnshire in 1563. Bertie, the nephew of Sir Peregrine Bertie*, had an exceptionally precocious career, receiving the order of the Bath at the age of eight, and entering Parliament as an under-age knight of the shire when he was 16. His only appointments in James’s last Parliament were to attend a conference with the Lords concerning monopolies (8 Apr. 1624), and to consider a private bill to confirm a sale of land by Sir Lewis Watson* (9 April).32 He was returned to the first Caroline Parliament for Stamford, but left no trace on the records. Ahead of the next general election, when he was again returned for Stamford, he travelled to the Low Countries to serve with his father as a captain of foot in the Dutch army. He returned in time to take up his seat, but on 3 June 1626 unsuccessfully requested leave to return to his company in Flanders.33 His father, meanwhile, had been promoted to the hereditary office of lord great chamberlain and was advanced to become the 1st earl of Lindsey shortly afterwards.34

Bertie’s financial position was greatly improved by his first marriage in 1627 to the countess of Holdernesse, one of Alderman Cockayne’s daughters, who reputedly brought him £10,000 in money, an estate worth around £900 p.a., a pension of £1,000 and a ‘house very richly furnished’.35 He may have served at sea under his father, who commanded an abortive expedition to Spain in 1626 and served as vice-admiral in the expeditions to the Ile de Ré and La Rochelle.36 In the 1630s Bertie was one of the partners in Lindsey’s undertaking to drain a large area of fenland.37 On the outbreak of the Civil War he supported the king, and as colonel of the Life Guards fought at Edgehill, where he was taken captive while trying to save his father, who was fatally wounded. He succeeded as 2nd earl of Lindsey, and after his release continued to serve as a royalist commander throughout the war, though himself injured at Naseby.38 He surrendered under the Oxford articles and compounded in 1646 for a fine of £4,360, raised to £5,372 in 1650. This probably underestimated his actual income, since the pre-war rental of his estates was £4,892, nor did it include his substantial interest in the drained Lincolnshire fens.39 Although the 20th earl of Oxford disputed his claim to the office of lord great chamberlain, Bertie successfully asserted his right to the post, and officiated in this role at the coronation of Charles II.40 He died at Campden House, Kensington on 25 July 1666, aged 58, and was buried at Grimsthorpe.41 In his will he left £3,000 to his second son and £2,000 apiece to his remaining five sons, together with various lands to provide an income for them; he was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert, who sat for Lincolnshire in the Cavalier Parliament.42 His portrait in miniature, painted by Samuel Cooper in around 1649, is held by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and the National Portrait Gallery holds copies of another likeness, after Van Dyck.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Paula Watson / Rosemary Sgroi

Notes

• 1. Lincs. AO, ANC/Lot 340/3.
• 2. CP, viii. 19.
• 3. Al. Cant.
• 4. T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, i. 220.
• 5. CP, viii. 20.
• 6. Ibid.
• 7. Ibid; PCC Admons. (Index Lib. lxv), 123.
• 8. Shaw, Knights of Eng. i. 160.
• 9. CP, viii. 19.
• 10. Shaw, i. 35.
• 11. CP, viii. 20-1.
• 12. C181/3, ff. 168v, 228v; 181/4, ff. 39, 154v; 181/5, ff. 42, 223, 227v; 181/7, pp. 75, 147, 223, 253, 259; CSP Dom. 1631-3, pp. 404, 526.
• 13. CSP Dom. 1634-5, p. 227; 1660-1, p. 553; 1661-2, p. 402; 1663-4, p. 623.
• 14. C231/4, ff. 260, 261; 231/5, pp. 312, 397; 231/7, p. 9; HMC 10th Rep. iv. 506-7; C220/9/4; C193/12/3; C181/7, pp. 30, 47, 49, 50, 52, 101, 113, 297, 319, 367.
• 15. Lincs. AO, Yarb. 8/2/3.
• 16. C181/3, f. 268; 181/5, f. 14; 181/7, p. 298.
• 17. C181/3, f. 258; 181/4, ff. 10v, 195v; 181/5, ff. 4, 220; 181/7, pp. 2, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 67, 121, 298, 303, 323, 349, 356, 358, 360, 361, 365, 370.
• 18. C181/4, f. 158v.
• 19. Ibid. f. 161; 181/7, p. 281.
• 20. Boston Corp. Mins. ed. J.F. Bailey, ii. 684.
• 21. Duchy of Lancaster Office-Holders ed. R. Somerville, 186.
• 22. Northants. RO, FH133; CSP Dom. 1641-3, p. 355.
• 23. CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 237; 1664-5, p. 226.
• 24. Sainty, Lords Lieutenants, 25, 100.
• 25. C181/7, p. 295.
• 26. CJ, i. 866a; Procs. 1626, iii. 350.
• 27. CSP Dom. 1639, p. 427; P.R. Newman, Roy. Officers in Eng. and Wales, 26.
• 28. CSP Dom. 1661-2, p. 475; 1665-6, p. 489; Lincs. AO, 1ANC/12M/6.
• 29. LC5/134, p. 24; LC3/1; CSP Dom. 1648-9, p. 278.
• 30. CSP Dom. 1660-1, p. 584.
• 31. CSP Dom. 1641-3, p. 507; Oxford DNB.
• 32. CJ, i. 757b, 758b.
• 33. Procs. 1626, iii. 350.
• 34. CP, viii. 16.
• 35. Birch, i. 220.
• 36. CSP Col. E.I. 1625-9, p. 305; CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 320.
• 37. CSP Dom. 1631-3, pp. 474-5, 534; 1635-6, p. 27; 1637-8, pp. 151, 540; 1638-9, p. 201; W.R. Scott, Joint Stock Cos. ii. 357.
• 38. Clarendon, Hist. of the Rebellion ed. W.D. Macray, ii. 353, iv, 43, 492; HMC Ancaster, 410-13; B. Whitelocke, Mems. of the Eng. Affairs, i. 187, 207, 448; ii. 11; CSP Dom. 1644, p. 311.
• 39. CCC, 1501-3; L. Stone, Crisis of the Aristocracy, 133; CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 464; 1645-7, p. 486.
• 40. CSP Dom. 1660-1, pp. 424, 584.
• 41. CP, viii. 20-1.
• 42. PROB 11/321, f. 116.