Sir John Northcote, 1st Baronet

Sir John Northcote, 1st Baronet (1599 – 24 June 1676), of Hayne in Devon, was an English Member of Parliament.

Educated at Exeter College, Oxford and a member of the Inner Temple, Northcote was High Sheriff of Devon in 1627. In late 1640 or early 1641, he entered Parliament for the newly re-established borough of Ashburton. On 16 July 1641, he was created a baronet.

Having Presbyterian sympathies, on the outbreak of the Civil War, he declared for Parliament, and used his considerable wealth and influence to aid the cause. In 1642 he provided £450 to finance military action in Ireland, and in June promised more money and troops for the war in England. His actions were sufficientlt notable for him to be excluded by name from the general pardon issued by the King in November 1642. The following year, Sir John was leading a regiment of 1,200 men in Devon, and was taken prisoner by Royal forces after the surrender of Exeter in September.

He was kept captive until the autumn of the following year, when he was exchanged, and resumed his Parliamentary seat in May 1645. He subscribed to the Covenant, and was excluded from Parliament in Pride's Purge in December 1648, but returned to the House of Commons once more as Member for Devon in all three Parliaments of the Protectorate. In the last of these, during Richard Cromwell's rule, he was a frequent speaker, and after the restoration of the Rump Parliament he took a leading role in organising a petition from Devon to the Speaker that the vacant seats should be filled. In the Convention Parliament of 1660 he was elected both for Devon and for Helston, though his return for the latter was ruled void. He subsequently also sat for Barnstaple from 1667 until his death.

Sir John married Grace Halswell (died 1675), and they had five sons and three daughters. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Arthur (1628-1688).

A manuscript purporting to be the Notebook of Sir John Northcote, containing Memoranda of Proceedings during the first session of the Long Parliament, 1640 was published in 1887. However, its authenticity was challenged on the grounds that it covered a period before Sir John had a seat in the House.

External links

• Notebook of Sir John Northcote (Internet Archive)

References

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
•  "Northcote, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 
• D. Brunton & D. H. Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [1]
• Burke's Peerage and Baronetage (London: Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1832) [2]
• E Kimber & R Johnson, The Baronetage of England (London, 1771) [3]