Sir Justinian Isham, 2nd Baronet (1610 – 2 March 1675) was an English scholar and royalist politician. He was also a Member of Parliament and an early member of the Royal Society.

Life

He was admitted a fellow-commoner at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, on 18 April 1627. Isham was a man of culture, building a library at Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire. Brian Duppa was a frequent correspondent of his; and he kept in touch with Seth Ward in Oxford. He was a patron of Alexander Ross. Loans to the king as well as fines to the parliament had greatly injured the Isham estates, when in 1651, Sir Justinian succeeded to the Isham baronetcy. He had been in prison for a short time during 1649, as a delinquent, and he was now forced to compound for the estate of Shangton in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. After the Restoration he was elected M.P. for Northamptonshire in the parliament which met in 1661.

Gilbert Clerke Gilbert Clerke (1626–c.1697) was an English mathematician, natural philosopher and Socinian theological writer. Life Born at Uppingham, Rutland, in 1626, he was a son of John Clerke, master of the school there. In 1641 he was admitted to Si ...

dedicated to him a 1662 work of natural philosophy. With Henry Power he was elected to the Royal Society, shortly after its 1663 charter came into force. He died at Oxford, on 2 March 1675, and is buried in the family burial place on the north side of the chancel in Lamport Church, where there is a Latin inscription to his memory.

Family

He was only son of

Sir John Isham Sir John Isham Bt (1582-1651) was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire and created the 1st hereditary Baronet of Lamport by King Charles I. Isham was born on 27 July 1582, and was the only son of Thomas Isham. He was named after his grandfather, Joh ...

(1582–1651), by his wife Judith, daughter of

William Lewin William Lewin (1747–1795) was an English naturalist and illustrator. Lewin grew up in Stepney, the son of a rate mariner. In 1776 he was earning a living as a pattern drawer, and by 1783 was describing himself as a painter. He specialised ...

, of Otterden, Kent. When he was baptised on 3 February 1610, he took his Christian name from his mother's brother, Sir Justinian Lewin, knt.

Elizabeth Isham Elizabeth Isham (1609–1654) was an English intellectual, herbalist, and Diary, diarist. She is best known today for her two autobiographical diaries, which are among the earliest known examples of autobiography written by an Englishwoman. Alth ...

, known for her autobiography, was his sister.''Elizabeth Isham's Autobiographical Writings''
/ref> Isham was married on 16 November 1634 to Jane, eldest daughter of Sir John Garrard, baronet, of Lamer, Hertfordshire; but his wife died in childbirth on 4 March 1638. Isham then wooed Dorothy Osborne; but she found him pompous. Isham's second wife, whom he married in 1653, was Vere, daughter of Thomas, Lord Leigh of Stoneleigh, by Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Egerton. Four children by her survived him:

Sir Thomas Isham, 3rd Baronet Sir Thomas Isham, 3rd Baronet of Lamport (15 March 1656/57 – 26 July 1681) is known for a diary he wrote from 1671 to 1673 of his observations as a teenage member of the English aristocracy. Life Thomas Isham II, the eldest son and second chi ...

;

Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Baronet Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Baronet (11 August 1658 – 13 May 1730) was an English landowner and Tory politician, who sat in the House of Commons almost continuously from 1685 until his death in 1730. He was the longest serving member, later termed ...

(d. 1730); Mary (d. 1679), who married Sir Marmaduke Dayrell of Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire; and Vere, an erudite young mathematician who died in 1674, aged 19. There also survived him three daughters by his first wife: Elizabeth (d. 1734), who married Sir Nicholas L'Estrange of Hunstanton, Norfolk, second baronet, and nephew of Sir Roger L'Estrange; Judith, who died unmarried, and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 22 May 1679; and Susanna, who was married on 4 May 1656 to Sir Nicholas Carew, kt.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Isham, Justinian 1610 births 1675 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society English MPs 1661–1679 Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Baronets in the Baronetage of England Cavaliers