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CALTHORPE, Reynolds I (1655-1720), of Elvetham, Hants.
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Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. 12 Aug. 1655, 3rd s. of Sir James Calthorpe of Ampton, Suff. by Dorothy, da. of Sir James Reynolds of Castle Camps, Cambs. educ. Bury St. Edmunds g.s.; Caius, Camb. 1673; M. Temple 1675. m. (1) 11 Apr. 1681, his cos. Priscilla (d. 1709), da. and h. of Sir Robert Reynolds† of Elvetham, wid. of Sir Richard Knight of Chawton, Hants, 1s. d.v.p.; (2) lic. 11 June 1715, Barbara (d. 1724), da. of Henry Yelverton, 1st Visct. de Longueville and 15th Ld. Grey of Ruthin, sis. of Talbot, 1st Earl of Sussex, 1s. 1da.1
Offices Held
Biography
On both sides Calthorpe’s family had strong associations with the Parliamentarian cause: his father’s knighthood had been conferred by Oliver Cromwell†; his father-in-law had been the Commonwealth’s solicitor-general; and another maternal uncle, Sir John Reynolds†, had been a prominent Roundhead soldier and at one stage commissary-general in Ireland. Little has been discovered of Calthorpe’s early life, though some connexion with the world of commerce may perhaps be inferred from his participation in loans to the government in the early 1690s to the tune of £7,500, and his subscription to the tontine in 1693. His first parliamentary candidature was in 1697 at a by-election for Hindon, where his wife’s family had an interest. He was defeated on that occasion but succeeded in the general election the following year, when, probably standing as a Whig, he made a cross-party alliance with the man who had ‘set up’ his opponent in 1697, Sir James Howe, 2nd Bt.*, to throw off the challenge of two other Tories. Like his colleague, however, Calthorpe seems to have followed a Country tack, being forecast as likely to support the disbanding bill. In early 1700 an analysis of the House listed him as being in the Old East India Company interest, though no other connexion with the Company is known. Having held his seat at the first election of 1701 he was removed in May on a Tory petition, but when chosen again in November was classed with the Tories in Robert Harley’s* list, and supported the motion of 26 Feb. 1702 vindicating the proceedings of the Commons in the impeachments of the Whig ministers.2
Calthorpe did not put up in 1702, giving his interest instead to his friend Thomas Jervoise*. In the 1705 election he persuaded Jervoise to contest Hampshire, where Calthorpe had also promised his backing to George Pitt*, and was himself returned at Hindon. This time he was listed as ‘Low Church’ in an analysis of the new Parliament, and he voted for the Court candidate in the division on the Speaker. For whatever reason, he was suddenly a more active Member in this Parliament, He was also no longer a Country Whig, supporting the Court on 18 Feb. 1706 in the proceedings on the ‘place clause’. He was listed as a Whig in early 1708, and in the general election that year he stood at Hindon with Howe and another Tory, Edmund Lambert. Pushed into third place, he petitioned against both sitting Members, and was seated in place of Howe. A teller on 6 Apr. 1709 against a further duty on woollen yarn, he supported the naturalization of the Palatines in 1709 and voted for the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell in 1710. He was certainly present in the House in January 1710, when he warned Jervoise of a forthcoming call, and was chosen again as a Whig in the following October, being classified as a Whig in the ‘Hanover list’. However, this election was the subject of a double return, and the Tory majority in the new House found against him. His elder son was the family representative at the 1713 election but died during the session so that Calthorpe was obliged to stand himself in 1715. Calthorpe died on 12 Apr. 1720.3