Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland

Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland

Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland, KG (1 March 1577 – 13 March 1634/1635), was Chancellor of the Exchequer and later Lord Treasurer of England under James I and Charles I, being one of the most influential figures in the early years of Charles I's Personal Rule and the architect of many of the policies that enabled him to rule without raising taxes through Parliament.

Weston was the eldest son and heir of Sir Hierome Weston, High Sheriff of Essex, and the former Mary Cave. He was born at Roxwell, Essex, and was a student of the Middle Temple. He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for a number of constituencies including Maldon (1601-1603), Midhurst (in the parliament of 1604-1611), Essex (in the Addled Parliament of 1614), Arundel (1622), Callington (1625) and Bodmin (1626). He was knighted in 1603.

During the reign of King James I of England, Weston was sent on embassies to Bohemia, Brussels, and Spain. On the last assignment, he negotiated for the restitution of the Palatine. Upon his return to England in 1621, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer, and retained the post after the accession of Charles I; he proved a capable financial manager but incurred popular hatred as a (justly) suspected Roman Catholic, while also later earning the enmity of the (Catholic) queen, Henrietta Maria for refusing grants to her favourites. He opposed wars with Spain in 1623 and France in 1626, but managed to find ways of raising the money to fund them when required, even when it was impossible to secure the co-operation of Parliament.

Weston was elevated to the peerage on 13 April 1628, as Baron Weston, of Neyland. He was subsequently made Lord Treasurer of England and invested with the Order of the Garter. His policies proving highly unpopular, he escaped impeachment in 1629 only by the dissolution of Parliament. Nevertheless, he played an important role in the King's Personal Rule without Parliament, finding new sources of revenue while preventing any further increase in the King's expenditure, and being for a time the most influential of Charles's advisers. He persuaded the King to make peace with France in 1629 and Spain in 1630, removing the biggest drain on the treasury, and to sign the secret treaty with Spain in 1634. By the time he died in 1635, the Crown was solvent.

On 17 February 1633, Weston was created Earl of Portland. Lord Portland was married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth Pincheon of Writtle in Essex. His second wife was Frances Walgrave of Boreley in Essex. He had three children by his first marriage, including Lady Mary Weston (2 January 1603-after August 1678), who married the 2nd Lord Aston of Forfar in 1629. He had eight children by his second marriage, including Elizabeth Weston, who married the 2nd Viscount Netterville, and his son Thomas, who later succeeded as 4th Earl. His nephew, Jeremiah Clarke, became a Governor of Rhode Island in the American colonies.

On his death, he was succeeded by his second but eldest surviving son, Jerome.

Earl of Portland is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England. It was first created for the politician Richard Weston, 1st Baron Weston, in 1633. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1621 to 1628 and Lord High Treasurer from 1628 to 1635, and had already been created Baron Weston, of Neyland in the County of Suffolk, in 1628. This title was also in the Peerage of England. He was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. He served as Joint Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire. His son, the third Earl, was killed at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665. He was unmarried and was succeeded by his uncle, the fourth Earl. He was childless and on his death in 1688 the titles became extinct.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Weston,_1st_Earl_of_Portland

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• Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland1
• M, #40940, b. 1 March 1576/77, d. 13 March 1634/35
• Last Edited=18 Apr 2010
• Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland was born on 1 March 1576/77 at Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, England.3 He was the son of Sir Jerome Weston and Mary Cave.3 He married, firstly, Elizabeth Pincheon, daughter of William Pincheon and Rose Reding. He married, secondly, Frances Waldegrave, daughter of Nicholas Waldegrave and Catherine Browne, before 1605.4 He died on 13 March 1634/35 at age 58 at Wallingford House, Whitehall, London, England.3
• Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland held the office of Lord High Treasurer [England].5 He gained the title of 1st Earl of Portland.
• Children of Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland
  • 1.Elizabeth Weston+5
  • 2.Lady Anne Weston6
• Child of Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland and Elizabeth Pincheon
  • 1.Mary Weston+1 b. 2 Jan 1602/3, d. a Aug 1678
• Child of Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland and Frances Waldegrave
  • 1.Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland3 b. 16 Dec 1605, d. 17 Mar 1663
• Citations
• 1.[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume I, page 286. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• 2.[S3409] Caroline Maubois, "re: Penancoet Family," e-mail message to Darryl Roger Lundy, 2 December 2008. Hereinafter cited as "re: Penancoet Family."
• 3.[S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume X, page 582.
• 4.[S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume X, page 584.
• 5.[S6] Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume I, page 428.
• 6.[S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 1084. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p4094.htm#i40940
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• Sir Richard Weston
• M, b. February 1577
• Sir Richard Weston was born in February 1577 at England. He married Frances Waldegrave, daughter of Sir Nicholas Waldegrave and Catherine Brown, circa 1602.
• Family Frances Waldegrave b. c 1580, d. Mar 1645
• Child
  • Catherine Weston+ b. c 1605, d. 31 Oct 1645
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2386.htm#... ________________

April 1920 issue of New England Historical and Genealogical Register (published in Volume 74) - abstracted. Dates in Gregorian reckoning.

Sir Richard Weston (1st Earl of Portland) and family

• 1st wife Elizabeth Pinchon, daughter of William Pinchon of Writtle and his wife Rose Readinge, buried at Roxwell 12 Feb 1603; sister of Sir William Pinchon, who married Sir Richard's sister Dorothy Weston.
• Children:

1. Richard, d. before May 1634; "insane".
2. Elizabeth, bur. in St Giles in the Fields, London, 16 Sept 1654; m. 1623 Sir John Netterville (bur. in St Giles in the Fields, London, 3 Sept 1659) &c &c
3. Mary, bapt. at Roxwell 3 Jan 1603; m. 1629 Walter, 2d Baron Aston of Forfar, &c &c

2d wife Lady Frances Waldegrave, d. 1645 (will proved in that year).

• Children:

1. Sir Jerome Weston, 2d Earl of Portland, b. 16 Dec 1605, d. 17 Mar 1663; m. 25 June 1632, Lady Frances Stuart (19 March 1617-March 1694); 4 daughtesr, all nuns; 1 son Charles, 3d Earl, d. unm. 1665
2. Catherine, bapt. at Roxwell 8 June 1607, d. in Rome Oct 1645; m. (no date given) Richard White of Hutton, co. Essex, esq., widower (his first wife having been Anne Gray), who also d. in Rome (no date); son of Richard, Esq., by his wife Mary (Plowden); had issue.
3. Thomas, 4th Earl of Portland, bapt. at Roxwell 9 Oct 1609; d.s.p. (no issue) at Louvain, 1688; title passed to the Bentinck family, 1689.
4. Nicholas, bapt. at Roxwell 10 May 1611, d. 1656; m. Margaret (NN); MP for Portsmouth in Long Parliament, expelled 1642 for overt Royalism; 2 daughters, Margaret and Dorothy.
5. Frances, bapt. at Roxwell 29 March 1612; m. circa 1629 Philip Draycote of Paynesley, co. Stafford, esq. (son of John Draycote, Esq. by wife Anne (Fowler)); their son Richard b. 5 Nov 1630.
6. Benjamin, bapt. at Roxwell 4 Aug 1614; d. between 1676 and 1688 (living in 1676, predeceased brother Thomas); m. Elizabeth (Sheldon) Villiers, widow of Christopher Villiers, Earl of Anglesey (d. 3 April 1630), younger brother to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; 2 daughters, Anne (d. in infancy) and Elizabeth (d. 1696), m. Sir Charles Shelley of Michelgrove, Bart.
7. Anne, d. in Venice 10 March 1635; first of four wives of Basil Feilding, 2d Earl of Denbigh (no offspring from any of his wives) &c &c
8. Mary, bapt. 11 March 1616; nun; d. after 1658.

Much more detail on the Weston family, all incidental to researches into the family background of Jeremiah Clarke, Governor of Rhode Island, who was the son of the 1st Earl's sister Mary (bapt. at Roxwell 26 April 1579; m. 10 Feb 1599 William Clerke of St Botolph, Aldgate, London, Gent.; 8 other children besides Jeremiah).

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