Sir Christopher Wray (1601 – 6 February 1646) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

at various times between 1614 and 1646. He supported the

Parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of Kingdom of England, England's governanc ...

Life

Wray was the son of

Sir William Wray, 1st Baronet, of Glentworth Sir William Wray, 1st Baronet, of Glentworth, Lincolnshire (c. 1555 – 13 August 1617) was an English Member of Parliament. He represented the constituency of Grimsby from 1584 to 1585, Lincolnshire in 1601 and Grimsby again from 1604 to Nove ...

Ashby Ashby may refer to: People * Ashby (surname) * Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby (1267–1314), governor of Rockingham Castle and steward of Rockingham Forest, England * Walter Ashby Plecker (1861–1947), American physician and publ ...

and

Barlings Barlings and Low Barlings are two small hamlets lying south off the A158 road at Langworth, in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. Low Barlings is a scattered collection of homes, situated along a trackway south from Barlings tow ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershir ...

and his second wife, Frances Drury, widow of Sir Nicholas Clifford of

Bobbing, Kent Bobbing is a village and civil parish in the Swale district of Kent, England, about a mile north-west of Sittingbourne, and forming part of its urban area. The hamlet of Howt Green and village of Keycol are included within the parish. According to ...

, and daughter of

Sir William Drury Sir William Drury (2 October 152713 October 1579) was an English statesman and soldier. Family William Drury, born at Hawstead in Suffolk on 2 October 1527, was the third son of Sir Robert Drury (c. 1503–1577) of Hedgerley, Buckinghamshire ...

of Hawsted,

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include L ...

, and

Elizabeth Stafford Elizabeth Stafford, also known as Dame Elizabeth Drury and – in the years prior to her death in 1599 – Dame (Lady) Elizabeth Scott, was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth I. She and her first husband, Sir William Drury, entertained ...

. In 1621 he was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

. He was knighted on 12 November 1623. He was re-elected MP for Grimsby in 1624 and 1625. He was elected again in 1628 and sat until 1629 when

King Charles King Charles may refer to: Kings A number of kings of Albania, Alençon, Anjou, Austria, Bohemia, Croatia, England, France, Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, Ireland, Jerusalem, Naples, Navarre, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sardinia, Scotland, Sicily, Sp ...

decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He successfully resisted the levy of

ship money Ship money was a tax of medieval origin levied intermittently in the Kingdom of England until the middle of the 17th century. Assessed typically on the inhabitants of coastal areas of England, it was one of several taxes that English monarchs co ...

in 1636. In April 1640, Wray was elected MP for Grimsby in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Af ...

and was re-elected for the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

in November 1640. He was Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire under the

Militia Ordinance The Militia Ordinance was passed by the Parliament of England on 15 March 1642. By claiming the right to appoint military commanders without the king's approval, it was a significant step in events leading to the outbreak of the First English Ci ...

. During the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the A ...

he co-operated in the field with John Hotham. He was appointed on 15 April 1645

commissioner of the admiralty This is a list of Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (incomplete before the Restoration, 1660). The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were the members of The Board of Admiralty, which exercised the office of Lord High Admiral when it was ...

, and on 5 December was appointed a commissioner resident with the Scottish forces besieging Newark. He died on 6 February 1646.

Family

Wray married Albinia Cecil (1603–1703), daughter of

Sir Edward Cecil Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon (29 February 1572 – 16 November 1638) was an English military commander and a politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1624. Life Cecil was the third son of Thomas Ce ...

on 3 August 1623, at

St Mary's Church, Wimbledon St Mary's Church, Wimbledon, is a Church of England church and is part of the Parish of Wimbledon, south-west London, England. It has existed since the 12th century and may be the church recorded in the Domesday Book in the Mortlake Hundred. It ...

. They had six sons and six daughters. The eldest son,

William William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

(created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in June 1660), died in October 1669, leaving, with other issue by his wife Olympia, second daughter of Sir Humfrey Tufton, 1st Baronet of The Mote, Kent, a son,

Sir Christopher Wray Sir Christopher Wray (1524 – 7 May 1592) was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King's Bench. Early life and career Wray, the third son of Thomas Wray, seneschal in 1535 of Coverham Abbey, Yorkshire, by Joan, daughter of Robert Jac ...

, who on the extinction of the male line of the elder branch of the family succeeded in 1672 to the Glentworth baronetcy, and died without issue in August 1679. On the death about March 1685–6 of his only surviving brother and successor in title, Sir William Wray, the junior baronetcy became extinct. Christopher Wray's daughter, Frances, married

Henry Vane the Younger Sir Henry Vane (baptised 26 March 161314 June 1662), often referred to as Harry Vane and Henry Vane the Younger to distinguish him from his father, Henry Vane the Elder, was an English politician, statesman, and colonial governor. He was br ...

Notes

References

* 1601 births 1646 deaths Deputy Lieutenants of Lincolnshire Lords of the Admiralty Younger sons of baronets English MPs 1621–1622 English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1628–1629 English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648 Members of the Parliament of England for Great Grimsby {{17thC-England-MP-stub