WELD, Sir John (1613-81), of Chelmarsh and Willey, Salop.

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

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1679

Family and Education

bap. 26 Jan. 1613, o. surv. s. of Sir John Weld of St. Clements Lane, London and Willey by Elizabeth, da. of Sir William Romney, Haberdasher, of Ironmonger Lane, London. educ. Trinity, Oxf. 1630; M. Temple 1630. m. by 1633, Elizabeth (d.1671), da. of Sir George Whitmore of Balmes, Hackney, Mdx., ld. mayor of London 1631-2, 7s. (1 d.v.p.) 5da. Kntd. 22 Sept. 1642; suc. fa. 1666.1

Offices Held

J.p. Salop July 1660-d.; bailiff, Wenlock 1660-1; commr. for assessment, Salop 1661-80, corporations 1662-3, loyal and indigent officers 1662, recusants 1675.2

Biography

Weld was the second cousin of Humphrey Weld. His father bought the town clerkship of London for £1,500 in 1613. He performed the office by deputy, and three years later purchased the Willey estate, four miles from Wenlock, for £7,000. He was a commissioner of array for Shropshire in the Civil War, and Weld himself was in arms for the King. They were taken prisoner in 1645, and compounded for their estates at £1,971. At the Restoration, Weld’s father was in a debtors’ prison; he ascribed his difficulties to building, lawsuits, mining projects and excessive hospitality. Weld himself had no political ambitions, using his position as bailiff of Wenlock in 1661 to secure the election of his son George. But at the first general election of 1679 he replaced his son, who had identified himself with Danby’s followers. Shaftesbury marked him ‘honest’, but he was inactive in the first Exclusion Parliament, and was absent from the division on the bill. He was defeated by the country candidate John Wolryche in August, and was buried at Willey on 4 Aug. 1681.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: J. S. Crossette

Notes

  • 1. Vis. London (Harl. Soc. xvii), 336; Corp. London RO, St. Andrew Undershaft par. reg.; G. E. Cokayne, Ld. Mayors and Sheriffs, 18-20; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), i. 186, 208-10.
  • 2. Bodl. Ch. Salop 146.
  • 3. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 3), i, 186, 193, 195, 202, 205, 207, 210; Eg. 2543, f. 32v.