THROCKMORTON, Clement (c.1630-63), of The Deanery, Wolverhampton, Staffs.

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

Constituency

Dates

12 Dec. 1654
1661 - 10 Nov. 1663

Family and Education

b. c.1630, 1st s. of Clement Throckmorton (d. c.1669) of Haseley, Warws. by Bridget, da. of Sir William Browne of Radford Semele, Warws. educ. Emmanuel, Camb. 1647; M. Temple 1647, called 1654. m. (with £300) Frances, da. of Fulke Crompton of Dawley Castle, Salop, s.p. Kntd. 11 Sept. 1660.1

Offices Held

Gent. of the privy chamber (extraordinary) July 1660-?d.2

Commr. for oyer and terminer, Midland circuit July 1660, assessment, Warws. Aug. 1660-d., Warwick Aug. 1660-1, Salop 1661-d., loyal and indigent officers, Warws. 1662.

Biography

Throckmorton’s ancestors had been prominent in the West Midlands Since the 12th century, serving regularly in Parliament since 1402. The baronets of the senior branch, seated at Coughton Court, were recusants, but the Haseley branch, founded in 1554, was strongly Puritan, producing in Job Throckmorton the probable author of the Marprelate tracts. Nevertheless, they appear to have avoided involvement in the Civil War. Although Throckmorton sat for Warwick, four miles from Haseley, under the Protectorate, he held no office till after the Restoration.3

Throckmorton regained his seat at the general election of 1660. An inactive Member, he was named to only six committees, including that to inquire into the publication of parliamentary proceedings. As a convinced Anglican, he made four speeches on the religious settlement. On 6 July he told the House that

he would not be for the Presbyterian government, because he had now taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and argued how Buchanan and Knox had written against kings, if they governed not well, and said: ‘No bishop, no king’.

In grand committee three days later he pointed out that all Protestant churches professed to be in accordance with scripture; the 39 Articles were accordingly necessary as a test. On 16 July he ‘moved highly for bishops, saying, unless Scotland, scarcely any reformed church but had bishops’. He was appointed to the committees for settling ecclesiastical livings, taking local accounts, and improving Lord’s Day observance. As a court Supporter, he was knighted before the recess, after which he spoke against the bill for modified episcopacy. On 19 Dec. he was sent to secure the concurrence of the Lords to a grant of £1,000 to Jane Lane for assisting Charles II’s escape after the battle of Worcester.4

Throckmorton was re-elected to the Cavalier Parliament. He was moderately active in the first two sessions, in which he was appointed to nineteen committees. He died at Wolverhampton on 10 Nov. 1663 in his father’s lifetime. The local Schoolmaster produced an elegy:

He’s dead! He’s dead. In vain did Honour strive,
And learning too, to keep him still alive. ...
The Church hath lost a most obedient son,
Who (when so many madly from her run),
Did meekly hearken to the Church’s voice,
And made religion not his chance, but choice. ...
Warwick did show its wisdom, when it sent
Him to be burgess in the Parliament.
But now it must condole his loss, and try
In vain to find another to supply
His vacant charge, with equal skill and care.
Alas! poor Warwick! phoenixes are rare.

He was the last member of the Haseley family to sit in Parliaments.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: M. W. Helms / A. M. Mimardière

Notes

  • 1. G. P. Mander, Wolverhampton Antiquary, 89, 331, 364-5.
  • 2. LC3/2.
  • 3. Misc. Gen. et Her. (ser. 5) vi. 225-7; VCH Warws. iii. 106.
  • 4. Bowman diary, ff. 56v, 64v, 82v; Old Parl. Hist. xxiii. 27.
  • 5. Dugdale, Warws. 654; Mander, op. cit. 252.