Family and Education

b. 5 May 1636, 1st s. of James Thurbarne by 1st w. educ. Wadham, Oxf. 1651, BA 1655; G. Inn, entered 1651, called 1660, ancient 1676. m. (1) settlement 23 Mar. 1674, Anne, da. of Richard Cutts of Childerley, Cambs., and coh. to her bro. John Cutts^†, 1st Baron Cutts of Gowran [I], 1da.; (2) settlement 4 July 1683, Mary (d.1711), da. and coh. of (Sir) Robert Croke of Chequers, s.p. suc. fa. 1688.1

Offices Held

Water-bailiff, Sandwich by 1663-84, 1689-?d.; commr. for assessment, Kent and Sandwich 1677-80, Serjeants’ Inn 1689, Bucks., Kent and Sandwich 1689-90; bencher, G. Inn 1679, treas. Apr.-May 1689; recorder, Sandwich 1689-1708; j.p. Bucks. and Kent 1689-d.; dep. lt. Bucks. by 1702-?11.2

Serjeant-at-law 1689-d.

Biography

Thurbarne was active in Sandwich affairs like his father, but as a practising barrister he must have spent much time in London. Together with Sir James Oxenden he defeated the court candidate John Strode II at the first general election of 1679, and was marked ‘honest’ on Shaftesbury’s list. An inactive Member of the first Exclusion Parliament, he was appointed to the committee for the habeas corpus amendment bill on 2 Apr.; but three weeks later he obtained leave ‘to continue in the country in order to the recovery of his health’. Although he was named to a committee on a bill to deal with the consequences of the Temple fire on 2 May, he was absent from the division on the exclusion bill, and left no trace on the records of the next two Parliaments. Nevertheless it was alleged in 1683 that Thurbarne ‘both by his practice in the town and his votes in the House of Commons has been industrious to assure the world he is a man of the same principles’ as his father, and in 1684, when Sandwich received its new charter, he lost his place as water-bailiff. In 1685, immediately after Samuel Pepys and John Strode had been elected by the freemen declared eligible under the new charter

the body of the old freemen (much more in number than the other) ... proceeded to a separate election and made their distinct return of Mr Thurbarne and another.

This was doubtless the subject of the petition of ‘divers inhabitants’ of Sandwich presented to the House on 1 June, but nothing came of the matter.3

At the Revolution Thurbarne was made recorder of Sandwich and serjeant-at-law. He was one of the supporters of the canopy at the coronation of William and Mary. He also resumed his representation of the borough with his old partner Oxenden. Although he had taken up residence on his wife’s property in Buckinghamshire and remained an inactive Member of the Convention, he continued to keep a watchful eye on legislation likely to affect his constituency. He was appointed to the committee on the bill to prevent abuses in parliamentary elections (25 Oct.), but he was not listed as a supporter of the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations. Under William III he was reckoned a country Whig. He was buried at St. Peter’s, Sandwich on 25 Jan. 1713, the last of the family to sit in Parliament.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. W. Boys, Hist. Sandwich, 351; Bucks. RO, D/ED/T190; Lipscomb, Bucks. ii. 194; Soc. of Genealogists, St. Botolph Aldersgate par. reg.
• 2. Boys, 423-4; Kent AO, S/N1, f. 217; Add. 33512, f. 105; Bucks. Sess. Recs. i. 434; ii. 456; iii. 307.
• 3. CSP Dom. 1683-4, p. 155; HMC Buccleuch, i. 341.
• 4. Suss. Arch. Coll. xv. 209; Luttrell, i. 529; VCH Bucks. ii. 336; Add. 33507, f. 118; Boys, 305, 351.