BERTIE, Hon. Peregrine I (c.1635-1701), of Grimsthorpe, Lincs. and George Street, Westminster.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

21 Oct. 1665

Family and Education

b. c.1635, 2nd s. of Sir Montagu Bertie, 2nd Earl of Lindsey, by 1st w.; bro. of Charles Bertie, Richard Bertie and Robert Bertie I, half-bro. of Henry Bertie. educ. travelled abroad 1649-754. m. lic. 23 Feb. 1674, ‘aged 30’, Susan, da. and coh. of Sir Edward Monyns, 2nd Bt., of Waldershare, Kent, 3da.1

Offices Held

Cornet, R. Horse Gds. (The Blues) 1661, lt. 1667, capt. 1676-9.2

Commr. for assessment, Westminster 1667-74, Lincs. 1667-80 , Kent, Lincs. and Wilts. 1689-90; dep. searcher of customs, London 1676-83, surveyor 1683-93; receiver-gen. of taxes, Kent 1677-8; j.p. Lincs. (Holland and Lindsey) 1680-d., Kent by 1701-d.; member, Hon. Artillery Co. 1682; alderman, Stamford and Boston 1685-Oct. 1688; freeman and bailiff, Oxford 1687; dep. lt. Kent 1689-d.3

Commr. for accounts, loyal and indigent officers 1671, alienations 1675-d.4

Biography

Bertie went abroad with his brother Richard after the execution of Charles I. He served with the Duke of York as a volunteer under Turenne at the siege of Arras. In the same year he was in Paris, where Lord Hatton reported that he spoke very abusively of Charles II, and was about to proceed to England with a message from the Duke of Buckingham to the Protector. Nothing more is heard of him till the Restoration, when he was given a commission in The Blues. He may have been defeated at Stamford in the general election of 1661, but entered the Cavalier Parliament at a by-election four years later. To judge from two incidents which he made matters of privilege, he was deeply conscious of the honour, but he was not an active Member, sitting on 33 committees at most and making five recorded speeches. In his first session, at Oxford, he was appointed to the committee for the attainder of English officers in the Dutch service, but presumably followed his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Osborne, in opposing the nonresisting oath. His name appeared on both lists of the court party in 1669-71. He was named to committees for the continuance of the Conventicles Act and for preventing the growth of Popery, but he was chiefly concerned with family or local matters, such as the estate bill promoted on behalf of his half-brother, Lord Norris, which he carried to the Lords on 20 Jan. 1671, and the drainage of Lindsey level. On 3 Mar. 1673 he acted as teller for his brother Vere’s petition against the Chippenham return. In the debate on the conduct of the Duke of Buckingham on 5 Feb. 1674, Bertie suggested hearing his accuser, (Sir) Thomas Williams, before seeking the concurrence of the Upper House. As one of the commissioners of the indigent officers fund he was sent with John Grobham Howe I to expedite the passing of the accounts of Sir John Bennet, and brought the reply of the lord chief baron (Edward Turnor) on 11 Feb. 1674. He was teller against the adjournment of the debate on the King’s speech on 13 Apr. 1675, and later in the session was appointed to the committee to hinder Papists from sitting in either House. As a commissioner of alienations, he was included in the list of King’s servants, and in 1677 Osborne, now Lord Treasurer Danby, gave him a receivership of taxes. Shaftesbury marked him ‘thrice vile’, and in A Seasonable Argument he was noted as Danby’s brother-in-law, with a pension and a troop of horse. On 21 Feb. 1678 he was teller for the unsuccessful motion to instruct the Lindsey level committee to sit in the afternoon. When the attack on Danby opened in December, Bertie claimed to have heard from Silius Titus ‘that what made him so against the treasurer was because he paid him not his £4,000 that the King owed him’. On 21 Dec. he suggested referring the first article of the impeachment to the lawyers in the House. Nevertheless he was appointed to the committee.5

Bertie lost his seat at the general election, withdrawing after an unsuccessful canvass at Stamford. He commanded the disbandment commissioners’ escort in East Anglia in June 1679, but sent in his papers shortly afterwards, when the death of his wife’s uncle brought him an estate in Kent, where he henceforward resided. He was nominated to the Stamford corporation under the new charter, and returned to James II’s Parliament, probably unopposed. He was probably moderately active; six committees can be allotted to him, including that to draw up the loyal address on Monmouth’s invasion. But like the rest of his family he was driven into opposition by the King’s religious policy. In 1687 he considered standing for Grantham on the interest of his niece’s husband, the Earl of Rutland (John Manners); but it was his half-brother, the Earl of Abingdon, who brought him into the Convention for Westbury. According to Anthony Rowe he voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant; but he served on only one unimportant committee at most. Danby proposed him as minister to Holland, but William thought him unfit. On 21 Jan. 1690 he moved for excepting William Williams from indemnity. He was re-elected for Westbury as a Court Tory, and died on 3 Jan. 1701.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

  • 1. CSP Dom. 1649-50, p. 537; Canterbury Mar. Lic. iii. 42.
  • 2. The Topographer, i. 17; CSP Dom. 1679-80, p. 325.
  • 3. Cal. Treas. Bks. v. 265, 430; x. 381; CSP Dom. 1685, pp. 39, 50; Ancient Vellum Bk. ed. Raikes, 112; Oxford Council Acts (Oxf. Hist. Soc. n.s. ii), 139, 170.
  • 4. CSP Dom. 1671, p. 255; Cal. Treas. Bks. iv. 326; xvi. 41.
  • 5. Nicholas Pprs. (Cam. Soc. n.s. 1), 113; Reps. Assoc. Architect. Socs. xxiii. 135; Browning, Danby , i. 38; CJ , ix. 159, 300, 425; Grey, ii. 382; vi. 362, 374.
  • 6. HMC 13th Rep. VI , 13; HMC Rutland , ii. 115; Foxcroft, Halifax , ii. 205; Grey, ix. 539; Luttrell, v. 2.