Sir Winston Churchill FRS (18 April 1620 – 26 March 1688), known as the Cavalier Colonel, was an English soldier, historian, and politician. He was the father of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, as well as a mixed-line ancestor of his 20th-century namesake, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.
Churchill was the son of John Churchill (b. c. 1596), a lawyer, and wife (m. 1620), Sarah Winston (b. c. 1598), daughter of Sir Henry Winston and wife. The Churchills were an old Dorset family. He was educated at St John's College, Oxford, but left university without taking a degree. Churchill was a fervent Royalist through his life and fought and was wounded in the Civil War as a Captain in the King's Horse and, after the Royalists were defeated, was forced to pay a recompense fee of £4,446. After the Restoration he sat as a Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis from 1661 to 1679 and for Lyme Regis from 1685 to 1688. Churchill was also a Commissioner of the Irish Court of Claims and Explanations between 1662 and 1668 and a Junior Clerk Comptroller to the Board of Green Cloth from 1664 to 1679. He was knighted in 1664 and made a Fellow of the Royal Society the same year. He also published a history of the kings of England, entitled Divi Britannica; being a remark upon the Lives of all the Kings of this Isle, from the year of the World 2855 until the year of Grace 1660.
In 1643 Churchill married Elizabeth Drake, daughter of Sir John Drake (d. 25 August 1636) and wife Eleanor Boteler, daughter of the 1st Baron Boteler of Brantfield and maternal niece of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. They had twelve children, of whom only five survived infancy. Four of their children gained distinction. The aforementioned John became a famous military commander and was created Duke of Marlborough; Charles (2 February 1656 – 1714) became a Lieutenant-General in the Army and married Mary Gould (later married to the 2nd Earl of Abingdon); George became an Admiral in the Royal Navy; Arabella became a mistress of King James II and mother of four of his children. Churchill died in March 1688, aged 67.
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir William Penn Henry Waltham Peter Middleton Bullen Reymes |
Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis with Sir William Penn 1661–1670 Bullen Reymes 1661–1673 Sir John Strangways 1661–1667 Sir John Coventry 1667–1679 Lord Ashley 1670–1679 Sir John Man 1673–1679 1661 – 1679 |
Succeeded by Sir John Coventry Lord Ashley Thomas Browne Michael Harvey |
| Preceded by Henry Henley Thomas Moore |
Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis with John Pole 1685 – 1688 |
Succeeded by John Pole John Burridge |