William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (8 June 1626 – 16 October 1695), KG, of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, was a prominent landowner.
William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (8 June 1626 – 16 October 1695), KG, of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, was a prominent landowner.
He was born at Wentworth Woodhouse, the only surviving son of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (d.1641) by his second wife Arabella Holles, a daughter of John Holles, 1st Earl of Clare. [1] His mother died in childbirth when he was five years old, after which his father remarried to Elizabeth Rhodes, who was a kindly stepmother to William and his sisters.
He studied at Trinity College Dublin. When his father was executed for treason in 1641, William left England for several years, mainly for fear of reprisals (although most of his father's enemies bore no ill-will to his widow or children), and lived for a while in France. He is said to have acted as a Royalist agent in Germany and Denmark, in partnership with Henry Coventry, which ended in a bitter quarrel, and a duel.
| Strafford Attainder Act 1662 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for the reversing the Earle of Strafford his Attainder. |
| Citation | 14 Cha 2 c 29 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 19 May 1662 |
| Commencement | 7 January 1662 |
| Repealed | 30 July 1948 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1948 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
In 1652 he was allowed to return to England on taking an oath of abjuration. In 1662 the bill of attainder against his father was reversed by Parliament, and he regained the title of Earl of Strafford and was invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1661. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1668 but was expelled in 1685. [2]
He led a rather "obscure, undistinguished and uninteresting life", [3] however his 1667 speech in the House of Lords was praiseworthy, [4] protesting against the banishment of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, on the grounds that no crime had been proved against him; his attitude is the more creditable since Clarendon had been one of his father's bitterest enemies. [5] He became a member of the Privy Council in 1674, and attended the crucial meeting in 1678 when Titus Oates first revealed his fabricated Popish Plot. [6] During the Exclusion Crisis he supported the future King James II, and made a point of calling on him when James travelled through Yorkshire on his way to Scotland in 1679.
He may be summed up as "rather indolent and lacking in character", [7] but was much loved by his family, especially by his father, whose last letter was to "dearest Will" from "a father that tenderly loves you". [8]
He married twice:
He died in Yorkshire on 16 October 1695, aged 69, and was buried in York Minster.
Strafford County, New Hampshire in the United States is named in his honour.
Having no children nor surviving brothers, the earldom became extinct, but his title of Baron Raby was inherited by his first cousin once-removed Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1672-1739), the grandson of a younger brother of the 1st Earl, who became Earl of Strafford in a new creation. His vast estates, however, including Wentworth Woodhouse, passed to his younger nephew Thomas Watson, the third son of his sister Anne Wentworth, who in accordance with the bequest adopted the additional surname of Wentworth.
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford,, was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1632 to 1640 he was Lord Deputy of Ireland, where he established a strong authoritarian rule. Recalled to England, he became a leading advisor to the King, attempting to strengthen the royal position against Parliament. When Parliament condemned Lord Strafford to death, Charles reluctantly signed the death warrant and Strafford was executed. He had been advanced several times in the Peerage of England during his career, being created 1st Baron Wentworth in 1628, 1st Viscount Wentworth in late 1628 or early 1629, and, finally, 1st Earl of Strafford in January 1640. He was known as Sir Thomas Wentworth, 2nd Baronet, between 1614 and 1628.
Adam Loftus, 1st Viscount Loftus, was Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1619 and from 1622 raised to the peerage of Ireland as Viscount Loftus of Ely, King's County. His uncle, another Adam Loftus, was both Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Church of Ireland primate.
Marquess of Rockingham, in the County of Northampton, was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1746 for Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Earl of Malton. The Watson family descended from Lewis Watson, Member of Parliament for Lincoln. He was created a Baronet, of Rockingham Castle in the County of Northampton, in the Baronetage of England in 1621. In 1645 he was further honoured when he was raised to the Peerage of England as Baron Rockingham. The third Baron served as Lord-Lieutenant of Kent. In 1714 he was created Baron Throwley, Viscount Sondes and Earl of Rockingham in the Peerage of Great Britain. His eldest son Edward Watson, Viscount Sondes, predeceased him and he was succeeded by his grandson, the second Earl. The second Earl was Lord-Lieutenant of Kent before his early death in 1745. He was childless and was succeeded by his younger brother, Thomas. He had previously represented Canterbury in Parliament.
Earl of Strafford is a title that has been created three times in English and British history.
John Williams was a Welsh clergyman and political advisor to King James I. He served as Bishop of Lincoln 1621–1641, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 1621–1625, and Archbishop of York 1641–1646. He was the last bishop to serve as lord chancellor.
Sir George Radcliffe was an English lawyer and politician. He spent much of his political career in Ireland, where he was a key member of the firm and ruthless Strafford administration. He lived out his last years in exile in the Dutch Republic.
John Clotworthy, 1st Viscount Massereene was a prominent Anglo-Irish politician.
Christopher Wandesford was an English administrator and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1621 and 1629. He was Lord Deputy of Ireland in the last months of his life.
Lieutenant-General Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, KG, also known as in Jacobite Peerage as the 1st Duke of Strafford and 3rd Baron Raby from 1695 to 1711, was an English peer, diplomat and statesman who served as First Lord of the Admiralty.
John Holles, 2nd Earl of Clare was an English nobleman.
Baron Wentworth is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1529 for Thomas Wentworth, who was also de jure sixth Baron le Despencer of the 1387 creation. The title was created by writ, which means that it can descend via female lines.
Sir William Strickland, 1st Baronet was an English Member of Parliament who supported the parliamentary cause during the English Civil War.
Thomas Dillon, 4th Viscount DillonPC (Ire) (1615–1673) held his title for 42 years that saw Strafford's administration, the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the Irish Confederate Wars and the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland. He was a royalist and supported Strafford and Ormond. He sided with the Confederates for a while but was a moderate who opposed Rinuccini, the papal nuncio.
Sir James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon was an Irish magnate and politician. He was born a Catholic but converted at a young age to the Church of Ireland. He supported Strafford during his term as governor of Ireland. In the Confederate Wars and the Cromwellian conquest he was a royalist. He died in 1649, but was nevertheless included as the fifth on the list of people that were excluded from pardon in Cromwell's 1652 Act of Settlement.
Thomas Watson-Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham, KB, PC (I) of Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire was a British Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1715 until 1728 when he was raised to the Peerage as Baron Malton.
William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford, styled Viscount Wentworth until 1739 was a British peer and member of the House of Lords of Great Britain.
Guilford Slingsby (1610–1643) was a member of the Yorkshire gentry who was confidential secretary to Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, and present during the trial which ended in his execution in April 1641.
Hon. Thomas Watson, later known as Thomas Watson-Wentworth, of Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire, was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1701 and 1723.
Sir Piers Crosby (1590–1646) was an Irish soldier and politician. Crosby was also a leading Irish magnate, owning various estates across the island. He was a man of strong and determined character, and had sufficient political skills to help bring about the downfall and death of the Earl of Stafford, who in the 1630s had been virtually all-powerful in Ireland.
Nicholas Preston, 6th Viscount Gormanston (1606–1643) sat in the House of Lords of the Irish Parliament of 1634–1635 and sided with the insurgents after the Irish Rebellion of 1641.
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