Family and Education

b. c.1671, 1st s. of Oliver Weekes of Tortington by Philippa, da. and coh. of Sir Walter Raleigh of Dowdeswell, Glos.  m. by 1698, Catherine (d. 1709), da. of Sir Thomas Parkyns, 1st Bt., of Bunny, Notts., 4s. (2 d.v.p.) 3da. (1 d.v.p.).  suc. fa. 1689.1

Offices Held

Biography

Weekes’s father, who gave negative replies to the questions on the Test Act and Penal Laws in 1688, had inherited the Sussex estates of the Gratwicke family. By the time Weekes himself came to inherit, much of the family property had been sold, but Tortington remained, giving him some influence in the neighbouring borough of Arundel, for which he was returned in December 1701, when he was classed as a Whig by Robert Harley*. Inactive in Parliament, he was probably the MP recorded as ‘Mr Wickes’ who was given leave of absence for the recovery of his health on 9 Apr. 1702. Returned again in 1702, he was mistakenly forecast on 30 Oct. 1704 as a probable supporter of the Tack, but did not vote for it on 28 Nov. He did not stand in 1705 and the following year sold Tortington and moved to London. He was mentioned in his wife’s will of 13 Dec. 1708 (although she did not name him as her executor), and was removed from the Sussex commission of the peace in 1710, but nothing further is known of him.2

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Paula Watson

Notes

• 1. Berry, Suss. Gens. 168; The Gen. n.s. iv. 14; Misc. Gen. et Her. iv. 157; PCC 160 Lane; Add. 5699 ff. 127, 168.
• 2. Suss. Arch. Colls. xxxi. 5; lx. 39–40; D. G. W. Elwes, Castles, Mansions and Manors of W. Suss. 241; PCC 160 Lane; C 234/37 (ex inf. Dr P. J. Le Fevre).