Family and Education

b. c.1628, 2nd s. of William Rothwell of Ewerby, Lincs. by Alice, da. and h. of George Stowe of Stapleford. m. lic. 12 Feb. 1673, aged 45, Elizabeth, da. of Robert Clifton, wid. of Edward Rothwell of Haverholme, Lincs., 2da. suc. bro. c.1655; cr. Bt. 16 Aug. 1661.1

Offices Held

Commr. for sewers, Lincs. Aug. 1660, assessment 1661-3, 1665-80, 1689-90; (Kesteven) 1663-4; j.p. (Kesteven) 1664-?Feb. 1688, Oct. 1688-d.2

Biography

Rothwell’s ancestors came from Lancashire. They became armigerous in 1585, and in 1593 his great-grandfather acquired the impropriate rectory of Stapleford, six miles from Newark. But they were slow to gain acceptance among the Lincolnshire gentry, and Rothwell’s father is reported to have served in the humble capacity of high constable. No member of the family seems to have been active politically during the Civil War and Interregnum. Rothwell, whose income was estimated at £1,500 p.a. in 1667, won one of the new seats at Newark for the country party ten years later at great expense. He was marked ‘worthy’ by Shaftesbury, but his only committee in the Cavalier Parliament was for a Lincolnshire estate bill. It is not known whether he stood again in February 1679, but he replaced the courtier Lord Deincourt ((Robert Leke) in the second and third Exclusion Parliaments, in which he was totally inactive. He was not removed from the commission of the peace till 1688, when he followed Sir Henry Monson in his negative answers on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws. He was restored to the bench, and remained an active j.p. after the Revolution. He died shortly before 5 Feb. 1694, leaving no male heirs.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: E. R. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Lincs. Peds. (Harl. Soc. lii), 835.
• 2. Kesteven Q. Sess. Mins. (Lincs. Rec. Soc. xxvi), 333, 355, 440.
• 3. Her. and Gen. ii. 122; Savile Corresp. (Cam. Soc. lxxi), 45; HMC Hastings, ii. 239.