WALDEN, Lionel II (c.1653-1701), of Huntingdon.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Oct. 1679

Family and Education

b. c.1653, o.s. of Lionel Walden I. educ. Trinity Coll. and Corpus, Camb. 1671; travelled abroad 1673; I. Temple 1675, called 1682. m. aft. 1684, Elizabeth, da. of (Sir) John Cotton I, 3rd Bt., of Conington, Hunts., 3s. (2 d.v.p.) 2da. suc. fa. 1698.1

Offices Held

Capt. Earl of Northampton’s Ft. 1673-4, indep. tp. 1685, Earl of Plymouth’s Horse 1685-6, major 1686-7, regt. of Sir John Fenwick 1687-Dec. 1688.

Commr. for assessment, Hunts. and Huntingdon 1677-80; lt. of militia horse, Hunts. by 1680-?85; j.p. Ely 1680- ?89, Hunts. 1681-?89; conservator, Bedford level 1682-9, 1697-d., bailiff 1689-97; alderman,Huntingdon 1686-Oct. 1688.2

Biography

(Sir) Joseph Williamson turned a deaf ear to the suggestion of employment for Walden ‘if there is any business he is capable of’, and the young man apparently preferred a military career. He regained one of the Huntingdon seats for the Court in the autumn election of 1679. In the second Exclusion Parliament he was appointed only to the committee to inquire into abhorring. His father joined the corporation in 1680, and Walden retained his seat in 1681, but left no trace on the records of the Oxford Parliament. His marriage marks a notable social advance for the family. Re-elected in 1685, he became a moderately active Member of James II’s Parliament. His nine committees included those to take the accounts of the disbandment commissioners and to consider a bill for the drainage of the Bedford level. He raised a troop of horse at the time of Monmouth’s rebellion, and (less creditably) acted as agent for the maids of honour in ransoming the Taunton schoolgirls who had welcomed the Duke. He was named to the Huntingdon corporation in the 1686 charter, and, after giving satisfaction to the King over the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws, he was recommended as court candidate in 1688.3

After the Revolution Walden was a more positive Jacobite than his father. He was arrested in 1690, but Lord Nottingham (Daniel Finch) moved ‘very vehemently’ for his release. He died on 15 Apr. 1701 and was buried at All Saints, Huntingdon. His only surviving son, who fought for the Old Pretender in the Fifteen, died unmarried in 1719, leaving £1,000 a year between his sisters, as well as large bequests for education.4

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. College of Arms, K7, CSP Dom. 1673, p. 508, Ext. and Dorm. Baronetage, 138.
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1680-1, p. 175; 1686-7, p. 46; S. Wells, Drainage of the Bedford Level, i. 462-73.
  • 3. CSP Dom. 1673, pp. 417, 552; 1685, p. 189; 1686-7, p. 33; 1687-9, p. 273.
  • 4. CSP Dom. 1690-1, p. 55; Luttrell, ii. 70; R. Morrice, Entering Bk. 3, p. 180; Hearne’s Colls. (Oxf. Hist. Soc. xliii), 88; (xlviii), 115.