Family and Education

bap. 18 Oct. 1640, o.s. of Thomas Ayliffe of Skeyers, Wootton St. Lawrence, by Mary, da. and coh. of John Hoare of Lovedean, Catherington. educ. Magdalen Coll. Oxf. 1657; L. Inn 1659. m. 15 Dec. 1664, Mary, da. and h. of Thomas Brooke of Whitchurch, s.p. suc. fa. 1644.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Hants 1661-80; j.p. Hants 1666-80, Andover 1674; commr. for inquiry, Finkley forest 1672, wastes and spoils, New Forest 1672-3, recusants, Hants 1675.2

Biography

Ayliffe’s ancestors had leased their farm in Wootton St. Lawrence from Magdalen since the end of the 15th century. They steadily increased their property in Tudor and early Stuart times, and Ayliffe also inherited North Oakley and Freemantle Farms in Kingsclere and Bramley Grange, all in the same area of northern Hampshire. He acquired an interest at Whitchurch by marrying a local heiress with the finest house in the borough. An opponent of the Court, he was returned at a by-election in 1674, but he was inactive in the Cavalier Parliament in which he was appointed to only five committees, including that on a bill for settling the hearth-tax in 1675. On the working lists he was committed to the management of (Sir) Joseph Williamson, but Shaftesbury marked him ‘doubly worthy’ in 1677. On 26 Dec. 1678 he acted as teller against adjourning the debate on the delay in executing three Jesuits convicted of the Godfrey murder. He retained his seat in the Exclusion Parliaments, doubtless by agreement with the Wallop interest, and was marked ‘worthy’ on Shaftesbury’s list. He was moderately active in 1679, being appointed to five committees, including those on the bills to prevent illegal exactions and to expedite the conviction of recusants. He voted for exclusion, and was removed from the Hampshire commission of the peace in 1680. In the second Exclusion Parliament his only committee was to inquire into the proceedings of the judges in Westminster Hall, but in the Oxford Parliament he was appointed to the committee of elections and privileges, and to that to recommend a better place to meet. He died on 9 Sept. 1682, and was buried at Whitchurch.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. Hants RO, Wootton St. Lawrence par. reg.; PCC 41 Fines, 52 Drax; Hants Mar. Lic. 1607-40, p. 40; Hants Par. Reg. viii. 110.
• 2. Cal. Treas. Bks. iii. 1204, 1212; CSP Dom. 1679-80, p. 60.
• 3. Vis. Hants (Harl. Soc. lxiv), 201; VCH Hants, iv. 239, 257-8; C5/439/90; Soc. of Genealogists, Whitchurch par. reg.