Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet, KB (28 March 1634 – 8 May 1697) 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 Bicameralism, 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 ...

at various times between 1654 and 1697.

Life

Temple was the son of

Sir Peter Temple, 2nd Baronet Sir Peter Temple, 2nd Baronet (15 October 1592 – 12 September 1653) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1653. He was a Parliamentarian in the English Civil War. Family Temple was the son of Sir Thomas Tem ...

of Stowe and his second wife Christian Leveson, daughter of Sir John Leveson.Account of the Temple family
/ref> He was admitted at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

on 6 November 1648 and at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mo ...

on 23 December 1648. He inherited the

baronetcy 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 ...

on the death of his father in September 1653. In 1654, Temple was elected Member of Parliament for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

in the

First Protectorate Parliament The First Protectorate Parliament was summoned by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Instrument of Government. It sat for one term from 3 September 1654 until 22 January 1655 with William Lenthall as the Speaker of the H ...

and in 1659, he was elected MP for

Buckingham Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of ...

in the

Third Protectorate Parliament The Third Protectorate Parliament sat for one session, from 27 January 1659 until 22 April 1659, with Chaloner Chute and Thomas Bampfylde as the Speakers of the House of Commons. It was a bicameral Parliament, with an Upper House having a po ...

. History of Parliament Online - Temple, Sir Richard
/ref> Temple was elected MP again for Buckingham in 1660 for the Convention Parliament. He was made

Knight of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

on 18 April 1661. He was re-elected in 1661 for the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. With the exception of the Long Parliament, it was the longest-lasting English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring ...

and sat until 1679. He was a member of the Council for foreign plantations in 1671 and commissioner of customs from 1672 to 1694. He took a leading part against the Popish Plot, and for excluding James, Duke of York from the crown. In the February 1679 election there was a double return and Sir Peter Tyrell was declared elected. However Temple regained the seat in August 1679 and held it until his death in 1697. In 1676 Temple commissioned a new house at Stowe which forms the core of the present building.

Death

Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet, died at the age of 63.

Family

Temple married Mary Knapp, daughter of Henry Knapp of

Woodcote Woodcote is a village and civil parish in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, about southeast of Wallingford and about northwest of Reading. It is in the Chiltern Hills, and the highest part of the village is above sea ...

South Stoke, Oxfordshire South Stoke is a village and civil parish on an east bank of the Thames, about north of Goring-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire. It includes less than to its north the hamlet and manor house of Littlestoke (a.k.a. Stoke Marmion). Manor In 9 ...

on 25 August 1675. He had several children: * His son

Sir Richard Temple, 4th Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English language, English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in Fren ...

, inherited the baronetcy and was raised to the peerage as

Viscount Cobham Viscount Cobham is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain that was created in 1718. Owing to its special remainder, the title has passed through several families. Since 1889, it has been held by members of the Lyttelton family. The barony ...

. * His eldest daughter Maria married Richard West. * His 2nd daughter

Hester Hester is both a female given name and a surname. As a given name Hester is a variant of Esther. As a surname it is of Italian origin and uncertain meaning. In Ireland, particularly County Mayo, the surname Hester is found as an Anglicized form of ...

married, 25 Nov 1710 in Wotton Underwood, Bucks., England,

Richard Grenville Sir Richard Grenville ( – ), also spelt Greynvile, Greeneville, and Greenfield, was an English privateer and explorer. Grenville was lord of the manors of Stowe, Cornwall and Bideford, Devon. He subsequently participated in the plantat ...

(1678-1727)Source for her is G.E.C. Peerage, ii, 324. From: 'Parishes : Wotton Underwood', A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (1927), pp. 130-134. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62550 She (Hester) had succeeded to the estate of her brother Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham, at Stowe, which henceforth became the family's chief seat, and with which Wotton descended until the death of the last Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in 1889. She then became the 1st Countess of Temple. * Christian, a younger daughter, married

Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet, of Frankley, in the County of Worcester (1686 – 14 September 1751), was an English landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1721 to 1741. He held office as one of the Lords of the Ad ...

. When her brother

was created

, it was with special remainder (in default of his own heirs male) to his sister Hester and her heirs male and in default of them to the heirs male of Christian. This latter remainder took effect in 1889 when her descendant Charles, Lord Lyttelton succeeded as Viscount Cobham.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple, Richard 1634 births 1697 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England English MPs 1654–1655 English MPs 1659 English MPs 1660 English MPs 1661–1679 English MPs 1680–1681 English MPs 1681 English MPs 1685–1687 English MPs 1689–1690 English MPs 1690–1695 English MPs 1695–1698 Knights of the Bath Temple baronets