William Jephson (Parliamentarian)

William Jephson (1609 – 11 December 1658) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1648. He was served in the Parliamentary army and was Cromwell's envoy to Sweden.

Jephson was the eldest son of Sir John Jephson and his first wife Elizabeth Norreys, daughter of Sir Thomas Norreys, Lord President of Munster. She brought the Norreys family's Irish estates at Mallow, County Cork and elsewhere into the Jephson family. Mallow Castle remained in the family until 1984.[1]

In April 1640, Jephson was elected Member of Parliament for Stockbridge in the Short Parliament. He was re-elected in November 1640 for the Long Parliament, and became a strong opponent of King Charles I.[2] Jephson was a member of Hampshire Committee in 1644 and also Lieutenant Governor of Portsmouth in 1644. He went back to Ireland the following year, but the political situation there was so chaotic that he found it impossible to assert his influence. Jephson was not recorded as sitting in Parliament after Pride's Purge in 1648. He sold the Froyle estate in 1653, being by then in serious financial difficulties, and returned to Ireland.[3] Jephson became a major general and was the representative in parliament for Cork in the First Protectorate Parliament in 1654 and in the Second Protectorate Parliament in 1656. He was staunch supporter of Cromwell, and was one of the faction known as "the Kinglings" who urged him strongly to accept the Crown. Cromwell's refusal disappointed him bitterly: he suggested ironically that the word King should be removed from the English language, since it seemed to distress so many people.[4]

As a reward for his loyalty, in 1657 Oliver Cromwell sent him as envoy to Sweden while Sweden was at war with Denmark, and persuaded the two Kingdoms to enter a peace treaty. He failed however to arrange a similar treaty between Sweden and Brandenburg. In failing health, he retired to England, and spent his last months at his wife's family home in Buckinghamshire.[5]

Jephson married Alicia Denham, daughter of Sir John Denham of Borestall House, Buckinghamshire and had four sons.. His son William was later MP for East Grinstead and Wycombe.[6] His eldest son Sir John Jephson inherited the Cork estates.[7]

Mallow Castle, the Jephson family home for almost 400 years

References

  1. ↑ Cork Past and Present - Mallow Parish and Manor
  2. ↑ Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. onepage&q&f&#61, false 229–239.
  3. ↑ Facets of Froyle - The Jephsons
  4. ↑ Little, Patrick "William Jephson" Dictionary of Irish Biography Cambridge University Press
  5. ↑ Austin Woolrych Britain in revolution, 1625-1660
  6. ↑ David Hayton, Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley The House of Commons, 1690-1715, Volume 1
  7. ↑ Dictionary of Irish Biography
Parliament of England
Preceded by
Parliament suspended since 1629		 Member of Parliament for Stockbridge
1640–1648
With: William Heveningham		 Succeeded by
Not represented in the Barebones Parliament
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