BOLD, Arthur (c.1604-77), of Petersfield, Hants and the Inner Temple.

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

Constituency

Dates

1661 - May 1677

Family and Education

b. c.1604, 1st s. of Arthur Bold of Petersfield. educ. Magdalen Hall, Oxf. matric. 26 June 1621, aged 17; I. Temple 1625, called 1634. m. 3 Aug. 1658, Elizabeth Hill of London, 1s. 1da.1

Offices Held

Bencher, I. Temple 1658, reader 1663; j.p. Hants July 1660-d., commr. for assessment Aug. 1660-74; freeman, Portsmouth 1661; commr. for corporations, Hants 1662-3, recusants 1675.2

Biography

Bold’s ancestors had held property in Petersfield since Tudor times, but as a professional lawyer he resided chiefly in London. He was probably a royalist sympathizer, as he held no office before the Restoration. He was first returned at the general election of 1660, but played no known part in the Convention, though he was probably a court supporter. Re-elected in 1661, he was highly inactive in the Cavalier Parliament. He was appointed to five committees of no political importance during the Clarendon administration. He unsuccessfully petitioned for the stewardship of the New Forest in 1667. He defaulted on a call of the House in 1670, and was named to the committee of elections and privileges in the next session, but he is unlikely to have attended again. He refused the recordership of Portsmouth in 1673 on grounds of age and infirmity. He was noted by Sir Richard Wiseman as absent from the autumn session of 1675, and was buried at Petersfield on 22 May 1677, the only member of his family to sit in Parliament.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / Paula Watson

Notes

  • 1. PCC 11 Reeve; Soc. of Genealogists, St. Gregory by Paul’s par. reg.
  • 2. R. East, Portsmouth Recs. 356; HMC 11th Rep. III, 55.
  • 3. VCH Hants, ii. 492; iii. 116; CSP Dom. 1667, p. 135; East, 420; Hants RO, Petersfield par. reg.