Family and Education

b. Jan. 1596, 1st s. of Sir Michael Hicks* and Elizabeth, Gabriel Colston, Grocer, of London.1 educ. Moreton sch., Essex (George Goodwin); ?Trin. Camb. c.1612.2 m. 8 Sept. 1625, Margaret (bur. 10 Sept. 1652), da. of William, 5th Lord Paget, 2s. 1da. 8 other ch. d.v.p.3 suc. fa. 1612;4 cr. bt. c. July 1619.5 d. 9 Oct. 1680.6

Offices Held

Collector (jt.), Privy Seal loan ?Essex 1626,7 dep. lt. 1638-at least 1644, 1660-?,8 lt. of Waltham forest, Essex 1640-?d.;9 commr. oyer and terminer, Essex 1640, perambulation of Waltham Forest 1641;10 j.p. Essex Apr.-July 1642, 1660-d.;11 commr. sewers, Essex and Kent 1642, Essex 1644,12 assessment, Essex 1643-8, 1660-d.,13 Glos. 1647-8, 1677-d.,14 sequestration, Essex 1643, levying money 1643, defence 1643, New Model Ordinance 1645;15 elder, Braintree classis, Essex 1648;16 commr. recusancy, Essex and Mdx. 1675.17

Biography

The godson of his father’s employer, Lord Burghley (Sir William Cecil†), Hicks inherited his estate while still a minor. His wardship was purchased by his mother. Although there is no record of his matriculation he studied with (Sir) Francis Nethersole* when the latter was fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.18 In July 1619 he was granted a baronetcy without paying money to the Exchequer, although the patent was not enrolled.19 A puzzled John Chamberlain wrote that he ‘comes to it I know not by what title’.20

Hicks was returned for Great Marlow in 1626 on the interest of his father-in-law, Lord Paget, and is twice mentioned in the surviving parliamentary records. On 7 Mar. he was named to attend the conference with the Lords concerning the safety and defence of the kingdom, and two days later he was appointed to consider a bill to prevent the making of malt ‘at times unseasonable’.21 Later that year the government decided to demand £200 from him in the form of a Privy Seal loan, and appointed him a loan collector, presumably for his native county.22 In August 1627 he was returned as a Forced Loan defaulter.23 He is not known to have stood at the general election of 1628, but was returned for Tewkesbury at the by-election caused by the elevation of his uncle, Sir Baptist Hicks*, to the peerage. He left no mark on the records of this Parliament.

Hicks was elected to the Short Parliament for Great Marlow and supported the Long Parliament on the outbreak of civil war in 1642. However, he became a royalist in the second Civil War, and compounded for his delinquency at £1,000 on an estate valued at £800 p.a., with £2,500 out at interest.24 He made his will on 9 Feb. 1678 and was buried in accordance with his request at Leyton, where his tomb recorded ‘his loyalty to King Charles in the Great Rebellion’. His family’s parliamentary service thereafter lapsed, and was not resumed until 1794.25

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Authors: Alan Davidson / Ben Coates

Notes

• 1. Lansd. 80, f. 168; Vis. Glos. (Harl. Soc. xxi), 81; Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 466; VCH Essex, vi. 195.
• 2. Lansd. 93, f. 56.
• 3. S.E. Hicks Beach, Cotswold Fam. 206, 217; PROB 11/365, f. 213; CB, i. 125.
• 4. A.G.R. Smith, Servant of the Cecils, 174.
• 5. CSP Dom. 1619-23, pp. 64, 65.
• 6. F. Chancellor, Ancient Sepulchral Mons. Essex, 306.
• 7. APC, 1626, p. 286.
• 8. Maynard Ltcy. Bk. 1608-1639 ed. B.W. Quintrell (Essex Historical Docs. iii), 413; LJ, v. 382; Stowe 189, f. 34; SP29/11/163.
• 9. W.R. Fisher, Forest of Essex, 120; CTB, 1679-80, p. 203.
• 10. C181/5, ff. 178, 208.
• 11. C231/5, ff. 519, 530; C220/9/4, f. 23v; S.N., Catalogue of Names of All his Majesties Justices of the Peace in Several Counties Throughout England and Wales (1680), p. 6.
• 12. C181/5, ff. 227, 245.
• 13. A. and O. i. 91, 536, 638, 965. 1082; SR, v. 213, 458. 530, 758, 810, 905.
• 14. A. and O. i. 966, 1083; SR, v. 810, 906.
• 15. A. and O. i. 112, 147, 292, 621.
• 16. W.A. Shaw, Hist. of English Church during Civil Wars and Under the Commonwealth, ii. 375.
• 17. CTB, 1672-5, pp. 696, 750.
• 18. Lansd. 93, ff. 13, 54v; WARD 9/162, f. 160.
• 19. CSP Dom. 1619-23, p. 65.
• 20. Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 260.
• 21. Procs. 1626, ii. 216, 238.
• 22. E401/2586, p. 460.
• 23. SP16/73/71.
• 24. CCC, 2144; SP23/236/153.
• 25. PROB 11/365, f. 212; Chancellor, 306.