17th century Lords Lieutenant

1607 to 1616 - Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley (1540 - 1616)

Between 1607 - 1728 four generations of Egertons were Lieutenants for a total of seventy one years. Educated at Brasenose College in Oxford, Thomas Egerton became Member of Parliament for Cheshire and held various titles rising to become Lord Chancellor from 1603 until his death. He acquired large estates including Ashridge in Buckinghamshire. He was universally known as Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, receiving that title in 1603.

1616 to 1628 - George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG (1592 - 1628)

A favourite of the King, his rise was meteoric, being created Earl in 1616, Marquess in 1617 and Duke in 1623. He was granted the former Grey of Wilton manors of Bletchley, Fenny Stratford and Whaddon and also had Biddlesden and Winslow, but never lived in Buckinghamshire. He was assassinated in 1628.

1628 to 1641 - Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery KG KB (1584 -1648)

He was a nephew of Sir Philip Sydney and he and his elder brother, William, the 3rd Earl, were the ‘incomparable pair of brothers’ to whom Shakespeare’s First Folio was dedicated. He held many high offices including that of Lord Chamberlain from 1626 and the Lieutenancies of Wiltshire and Somerset in addition to Buckinghamshire. He was dismissed from his posts by the King after moving over to the opposition after commanding a regiment of horse in the Scottish campaign. He then became a leading parliamentarian until his death.

1641 to 1643 - Robert Dormer, 1st Earl of Carnarvon (1610 -1643)

The Dormers were an old Buckinghamshire family and flourished in the sixteenth century when they acquired extensive estates in Buckinghamshire, at Ascott near Wing, Long Crendon and Quainton. Robert Dormer succeeded his grandfather in 1616 as second Baron and was created Viscount and Earl of Carnarvon in 1628 when only eighteen years of age. He married Anna Herbert and succeeded his father-in-law as Lieutenant. A devoted Royalist and gallant soldier, he was killed at the first battle of Newbury and was buried at Wing.

1641 to 1642 - William Paget 5th Lord Paget of Beaudesert (1609 - 1678)

The Pagets held the manors of Marlow and Iver for just over a century from 1554, although they were a Staffordshire family. William Paget succeeded as fifth Lord Paget in 1628. At the start of the Civil War he supported Parliament who appointed him their Lieutenant in 1641, but he joined the King in the following year and he was dismissed in May 1642.

1642 - Philip Wharton 4th Lord Wharton (1613 - 1695)

Following Paget's defection, Parliament appointed a tougher and more reliable character in Philip Wharton. He was also Lieutenant of Westmorland, where his ancestral estates lay and Lancashire. He was a rigid Puritan and up to 1648 was continuously employed as soldier, politician and diplomat. After the King's execution, he retired from public life, though remaining a personal friend of Cromwell.

The office of Lieutenant appears to have lapsed during the Protectorate but was resumed in 1660.

1660 to 1686 - John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater (1623 - 1686)

On the death of Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, the earldom was awarded to his eldest son. As Lieutenant, he persecuted all Dissenters, sending Benjamin Keach, the Baptist preacher and Isaac Penington, the Quaker, to Aylesbury gaol. He was buried at Little Gaddesden.

1686 to 1687 - John Egerton 3rd Earl of Bridgewater KB (1646 - 1701)

Like his father, a strong Anglican and a Whig, he served as Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire for a year before his father’s death. In the crisis of James II’s reign he was one of the seventeen Lord Lieutenants (covering twenty one counties) dismissed for refusing to obey the King’s instructions to produce lists of Roman Catholics and dissenters to serve as Justices and as officers of the Militia.

1687 to 1689 - George Jeffreys 1st Lord Jeffreys of Wem (1648 - 1689)

The appointment of the notorious Judge Jeffreys as Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire and Shropshire was a natural appointment for James II to make after the mass dismissals of 1687, as Buckinghamshire had an overwhelming Parliamentary tradition and there were few Tory landowners of substance. Jeffreys was educated at Shrewsbury, St Pauls and Westminster and then at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a KC and a knight before he was thirty and Judge and Baronet by 1681, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in 1683 and Lord Chancellor with a peerage in 1685. He opposed Wharton and Bridgewater in the County election of 1685 which was won by Wharton and the Whigs. His attempt to flee the country and join James II in exile failed and he was arrested and sent to the Tower, where he died three months later.

1689 to 1701 - John Egerton 3rd Earl of Bridgewater KB (1646 - 1701)

Bridgewater was restored to the Lieutenancy by William III and later served as Speaker of the House of Lords and First Lord of the Admiralty. He was buried at Little Gaddesdon.

We would like to acknowledge Major Elliott Viney DSO MBE TD FSA DL  author of The Buckinghamshire Lieutenancy, for the historical information.