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FLEMING, Edward (c.1653-1700), of North Stoneham, nr. Southampton.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. c.1653, 1st s. of Edward Fleming of North Stoneham by Katherine, da. of Edward Hooper of Boveridge, Dorset. educ. M. Temple 1672. m. lic. 16 Nov. 1672, ‘aged 23’, Margaret, da. of Thomas Bland, Scrivener, of London, 3s. 2da. suc. fa. 1664.1
Offices Held
J.p. Hants by 1680-Apr. 1688, 1690-d., dep. lt. 1682-Apr. 1688; verderer, New Forest 1686; freeman, Lymington 1686; sheriff, Hants 1688-9, commr. for assessment 1689-90.2
Biography
Fleming’s great-grandfather, a lawyer from the Isle of Wight, sat for Winchester in three Elizabethan Parliaments and bought the manor of North Stoneham in 1595. He subsequently sat for the county and for Southampton before becoming a judge. Fleming’s father was too young to take part in the Civil War, but held local office both under the Protectorate and after the Restoration. Fleming himself was probably a Tory since he remained in local office during the exclusion crisis. In 1688 he returned negative answers to the first and second questions on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws, and was removed from local office, but pricked as sheriff after the landing of William of Orange. An American observer reported that he was a candidate at the Hampshire by-election in February 1689, but it is probable that he was only acting as returning officer. After the expiry of his term of office he was returned to the Convention for Southampton on the freeman franchise, but unseated on petition without making any speeches or serving on any committees. He died in 1700, aged 47. His son sat for Southampton as a Tory from 1710 to 1722.3