Family and Education

b. 10 July 1662, 1st surv. s. of William Helyar of East Coker by Rachel, da. of Sir Hugh Wyndham, 1st Bt., of Pilsdon Court, Dorset. educ. Trinity, Oxf. 1680; L. Inn. 1683. m. (1) 9 June 1690, Joanna (d.11 Oct. 1714), da. and coh. of Robert Hole of South Tawton, Devon, 2s. 3da.; (2) 1719, Anne, da. of William Harbin of Newton Surmaville, Som. suc. fa. 1697.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Somerset 1701-2.

Biography

Helyar was descended from an old Devonshire family, long settled in Somerset, where they had bought the manor of East Coker in 1616. In spite of being heavily fined for royalist activities in the civil war, his father was able to leave him not merely the family property in Somerset and Devonshire, but the lease of a plantation in Jamaica.1 Returned for Ilchester in the Convention Parliament, Helyar did not sit again till 1715, when he successfully contested his county as a Tory. He voted against the Government in all the recorded divisions except that on the septennial bill in 1716, from which he was absent. He did not stand again, being buried 8 Oct. 1742.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Shirley Matthews

Notes

• 1. CSP Col. 1669-74, pp. 561, 591; PCC 284 Pyne.