Sir William Savile, 3rd Baronet of Thornhill (1612 – 24 January 1644) 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 ...

between 1640 and 1642. He fought on the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

side in the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

and was killed in action. Savile was born at Thornhill, the son of Sir George Savile and Anne Wentworth, and the grandson of

Sir George Savile, 1st Baronet Sir George Savile, 1st Baronet of Thornhill (1551 – 12 November 1622), was an English politician and the lineal ancestor of the Marquesses of Halifax. He was born in 1551, the eldest son of Henry Savile and Joan Vernon. The Saviles were an ...

. 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 brother George in 1626. Included in the family estates were the residences of Thornhill Hall,

Rufford Abbey Rufford Abbey is a country estate in Rufford, Nottinghamshire, England, two miles (4 km) south of Ollerton. Originally a Cistercian abbey, it was converted to a country house in the 16th century after Henry VIII’s dissolution of the ...

, and a house in York. He was educated at

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

and entered

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 ...

in 1628. Wentworth selected him to be Deputy Lieutenant of the West Riding in 1633, and he was appointed to the council in the north in July 1636.Ingilby History - Ripley Castle
/ref> In April 1640, Savile was elected Member of Parliament for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on 20 February 1640 and sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640. It was so called because of its short session of only three weeks. After 11 years of per ...

. In parliament, he spoke against ship money and signed the petition against forced billeting, but he remained loyal to the king. He was defeated in the election of November 1640 and was returned as MP for

Old Sarum Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest recor ...

in a by-election early in 1641. He gave evidence in favour of Strafford and supported him throughout the trial. He was himself committed to the Tower on 12 June for an unidentified offence and let out on 29 June after a reprimand from the Speaker. Savile was with the king at Nottingham when the royal standard was raised on 22 August 1642. He was marked as a "suspicious man" and was disabled from sitting in the Commons by parliament. Towards the end of 1642 Savile was placed in command at

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

when Newcastle marched into the West Riding but on 23 January 1643 Fairfax captured the town after a fierce attack and Savile swam across the

River Aire The River Aire is a major river in Yorkshire, England, in length. Part of the river below Leeds is canalised, and is known as the Aire and Calder Navigation. The ''Handbook for Leeds and Airedale'' (1890) notes that the distance from Malha ...

to escape. In May 1643 he was appointed governor of the town of Sheffield and of

Sheffield Castle Sheffield Castle was a castle in Sheffield, England, constructed at the confluence of the River Sheaf and the River Don, possibly on the site of a former Anglo-Saxon long house, and dominating the early town. A motte and bailey castle had been ...

and then transferred to York. In October 1643 he was in command of the Royalist cavalry at the

Battle of Winceby The Battle of Winceby took place on 11 October 1643 during the First English Civil War near the village of Winceby, Lincolnshire. In the battle, a Royalist relieving force under the command of Sir William Widdrington was defeated by the ...

. He died at or near York fighting for the king in January 1644. He had converted Thornhill Hall into a garrison for the King's forces, and it was demolished by parliamentary forces after its capture by Cromwell.

Family

Savile married Anne, daughter of

Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry (157814 January 1640) was a prominent English lawyer, politician and judge during the early 17th century. Education and early legal career He entered Balliol College, Oxford, in 1592, and the Inner Temple in ...

, on 29 December 1629. She became celebrated as a heroine of the civil war when she was besieged by the Parliamentarians in Sheffield Castle. She gave a gallant and warlike defence to the battering from guns on all sides, in spite of her advanced pregnancy. Against her orders, the garrison eventually surrendered the crumbling castle and she gave birth the same night on 11 August 1644. Sir William & Lady Anne had seven children: :*Mary (b.1632) :*

George George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...

(b.1633) who succeeded William as the 4th Baronet and then later created

Marquess of Halifax The title Marquess of Halifax was created in the Peerage of England in 1682 for the George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, George Savile, 1st Earl of Halifax. He had previously been created Baron Savile, of Elland in the County of York, Viscount ...

.Nottinghamshire History - Rufford
/ref> :*Anne (b.1634) married Thomas Windsor, 1st Earl of Plymouth :*William (b.1635) :*Margaret (b.1640) :*

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

(b.1642) :*Talbot (b.1644) born during the siege of Sheffield Castle About eleven years after Savile's death, Anne married ''circa'' 1655 to Sir

Thomas Chicheley Sir Thomas Chicheley (25 March 1614 – 1 February 1699) of Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire was a politician in England in the seventeenth century who fell from favour in the reign of James II. His name is sometimes spelt as Chichele. Life He wa ...

and had two further sons.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Savile, William 1612 births 1644 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England Cavaliers People killed in the English Civil War English military personnel killed in action English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1640–1648