Family and Education

bap. 3 Aug. 1652, 1st s. of Thomas Western (d.1707) Grocer, of Lower Thames Street, London and Rivenhall, Essex by Martha, da. of Samuel Gott, Ironmonger, of London. educ. St. Catherine’s, Camb. 1669; G. Inn 1670, called 1678. m. lic. 18 Aug. 1690, Anna Maria, da. of William Finch, Mercer, of Little St. Helens, London, 2s. (1 d.v.p.).1

Offices Held

J.p. Essex by 1690-d.

Biography

Western’s father married the sister of Samuel Gott. He bought a large and profitable tract of land in Burwash, ten miles from Winchelsea. He sold much timber to the navy in the second Dutch war and by 1670 operated an ordnance foundry for the Government, narrowly escaping death when Woolwich Arsenal blew up in 1688. Nevertheless, he was ‘as much against the King’s government and interest as any, and as hot and violent as the worst, but goes to church’. Western, a lawyer, was returned for Winchelsea in 1689, and acted as one of the bearers of the canopy at the coronation, but was totally inactive in the Convention. Although doubtless a Whig, he did not vote for the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations. He died on 20 Aug. 1699. His nephew and eventual heir Thomas sat for Sudbury as a Whig from 1715 to 1722.2

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Basil Duke Henning

Notes

• 1. London Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. xcii), 148-9; Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiv), 747; J. R. Woodhead, Rulers of London, 69, 174.
• 2. Essex Rev. x. 1-22; Ellis Corresp. ii. 124; Suss. Arch. Colls. xv. 209; Luttrell, vi. 130.