CHEYNE, William (1657-1728), of Chesham Bois, Bucks.

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

Constituency

Dates

25 July 1689
24 Feb. 1696
Feb. 1701
Dec. 1701
1705 - 1 May 1707

Family and Education

bap. 14 July 1657, o.s. of Charles Cheyne, 1st Visct. Newhaven [S], by 1st w. educ. Brasenose, Oxf. 1671. m. (1) 16 Dec. 1675, Elizabeth (bur. 10 Aug. 1677), da. of Edmund Thomas of Wenvoe, Glam., s.p.; (2) 6 May 1680, Gertrude (d. 11 June 1732), da. of Robert Pierrepont of Thoresby, Notts., s.p. suc. fa. as 2nd Visct. Newhaven [S] 30 June 1698.

Offices Held

Dep. lt. Bucks. 1677-Feb. 1688, Sept. 1688-June 1702, Dec. 1702-12, j.p. 1680-Feb. 1688, Sept. 1688-?d., col. of militia ft. by 1697-?1714, ld. lt. June-Dec. 1702, 1712-14.1

Commr. of privy seal 1690-2; clerk of the pipe 1703-6, 1711-d.2

Biography

Unsuccessful at the first general election of 1679, Cheyne was returned for Amersham as a Tory in 1681 but was totally inactive both at Oxford and in James II’s Parliament. He was absent when the King’s questions on the repeal of the Test and Penal Laws were put, but he was removed from the local commissions. Before the Revolution, he broke with the family tradition by attaching himself to the Hon. Thomas Wharton, with whom he shared a passion for racing, and who secured his return to the Convention at a by-election for Appleby at the cost of £2,200. Cheyne was not an active Member, being appointed only to the committee of elections and privileges and another on a private bill. Anthony Rowe listed him as voting to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant, six months before he could have taken his seat. He quarrelled with Wharton before the general election of 1698, and reverted to Toryism. He died on 26 May 1728, the last of his family, and was buried at Drayton Beauchamp.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Leonard Naylor / Eveline Cruickshanks

Notes

  • 1. Eg. 1626, f. 5.
  • 2. Luttrell, ii. 15, 326; Cal. Treas. Bks. xviii. 353-4; xxi. 118; xxv. 433.
  • 3. Sir Richard Steele, Wharton Mems. (1715), 29-31; Verney Mems. ii. 462; T. Faulkner, Chelsea, i. 336.