Family and Education

bap. 1 July 1683, 1st s. of Jasper Radcliffe, merchant, of St. Thomas the Apostle, near Exeter, Devon, by Jane, da. of Solomon Andrews of Lyme Regis, Dorset.  educ. New Coll. Oxf. 1703; M. Temple 1703. unm.  suc. fa. 1704.1

Offices Held

Freeman, Exeter 1708.2

Biography

Although the Radcliffe coat of arms suggested descent from the earls of Derwentwater, Radcliffe’s antecedents were firmly among the trading communities of Exeter. His grandfather, also Jasper (d. 1676), lived for over 50 years in the parish of St. Petrock, Exeter; he belonged to the goldsmiths’ guild and in 1635 was paid for working on the civic regalia. Radcliffe’s father held property in many Exeter parishes, but actually resided just over the river Exe in the parish of St. Thomas. Socially, he was clearly upwardly mobile, and served as sheriff of Devon in 1696–7. By 1704, when Radcliffe’s grandfather was reported to have been removed from the shire bench, his father’s estate was supposedly ‘valued at £40,000, £600 p.a.’; certainly, his will bequeathed £10,800 to his younger children. Radcliffe was sent to Oxford and the Middle Temple, but shortly afterwards he inherited the family estates. Nothing further is known about him until his election in 1710.3

Without doubt Radcliffe was a Tory, his election probably owing much to his relationship to Henry Manaton*, who had also married a daughter of Solomon Andrews, and who held a strong interest at Camelford. Indeed, Radcliffe’s father had named Manaton as one of his executors. Radcliffe was classed as a Tory on the ‘Hanover list’, and as a ‘worthy patriot’ who helped to detect the mismanagements of the previous administration. However, his parliamentary career was cut short by his death on 1 Mar. 1711. In his will he described himself as a merchant and appointed Manaton and his mother as trustees, bequeathing his estate to his brother, Andrew, who was in turn was succeeded by his brother, Walter, neither of whom sat in Parliament.4

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: Stuart Handley

Notes

• 1. IGI, Devon; Burke, Commoners, ii. 27–28; B. F. Cresswell, Churches of Exeter, 180–1.
• 2. Exeter Freemen 1266–1967 ed. Rowe and Jackson (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. extra ser. i), 217.
• 3. Trans. Devon Assoc. xliv. 451; lxiv. 434–5; W. G. Hoskins, Exeter in 17th Cent. (Devon and Cornw. Rec. Soc. Ser. n.s. ii), 91, 115, 117; HMC Portland, iv. 134; PCC 253 Gee.
• 4. Boyer, Pol. State, i–ii. 267; British Mercury, 2–5 Mar. 1711; Burke, 27–28; PCC 57 Young.