Family and Education

b. 11 Aug. 1658, 3rd s. of Sir Justianian Isham, 2nd Bt., being 2nd s. by 2nd w. educ. Christ Church, Oxf. 1674; L. Inn 1677. m. 16 July 1683, Elizabeth (d. 22 Aug. 1713), da. of Sir Edmund Turner of Stoke Rochford, Lincs., 8s. (3 d.v.p.) 6da. suc. bro. 26 July 1681.1

Offices Held

Dep. lt. Northants, 1681-8, 1689-?d.; j.p. Northants. 1683-Feb. 1688, 1689-?d., Leics. 1711-?d.; commr. for assessment, Northants. 1689-90.2

Biography

Isham was one of those recommended in 1683 to replace the Whigs who had been dismissed from the commission of the peace. He was returned to the first of his 15 consecutive Parliaments for Northampton in 1685, and was listed by Danby among the Opposition. He was appointed to only two committees, one for the relief of the Earl of Cleveland’s creditors and the other for the repeal of the Bedford Level Act so far as it affected Northamptonshire. In reply to the lord lieutenant’s questions on the Test Act and Penal Laws, he said that he would not stand; but he was dismissed from county office. He took an active part in the Revolution, signing warrants to raise the militia and serving as cornet under Bishop Compton in Princess Anne’s escort at Nottingham. He was probably returned without a contest in 1689 by arrangement with Edward Montagu II, with whom he kept up a political correspondence. After voting to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant he probably left Westminster, serving on no committees in the Convention and making no speeches. He was given leave on 14 Dec. 1689, but a week later Montagu wrote urging him to return, ‘for I really believe there will be more need than ordinary of so good a man as you’. Whether or not Isham returned in time to vote against the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations is not known, but he lost his seat at the general election. He sat in the House as a Tory without any further interruption from 1694 till his death on 13 May 1730, when his son succeeded him as knight of the shire.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: E. R. Edwards

Notes

• 1. VCH Northants. Fams. 160-1.
• 2. CSP Dom. 1680-1, p. 557.
• 3. CSP Dom. 1682, p. 618; Hatton Corresp. (Harl. Soc. n.s. xxiii), 116, Northants, RO, IC 1440.