Sir William Airmine, 2nd Baronet

Sir William Airmine, 2nd Baronet (14 July 1622 – 2 January 1658) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1646 to 1653.

Airmine was born at Ruckholt, the son of Sir William Airmine, 1st Baronet and his first wife Elizabeth Hicks, daughter of Sir Michael Hicks, of Beverstone Castle, Gloucestershire, and of Ruckholt, in Low Leyton, Essex. He was admitted to Gray's Inn on 18 November 1639. He served as commissioner of parliament for the Scots in 1643. In March 1646 he was elected Member of Parliament for Cumberland as a recruiter to the Long Parliament. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father on 10 April 1651.^[1]

Family

Airmine married Anne Crane, daughter of Sir Robert Crane, 1st Baronet of Chilton, Suffolk, at Chilton on 26 August 1649. They had two surviving daughters, Susan and Anne. Lady Airmine remarried John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse, and died in 1662. Of their daughters:

• Susan married Lord Belasyse's only son, Sir Henry Belasyse (died 1667) by his first wife Jane Boteler: her husband predeceased his father, leaving a son Henry, 2nd Baron. In 1674 Susan was created Baroness Belasyse of Osgodby in her own right. She remarried James Fortrey of Fortreys Hall, Cambridgeshire, who outlived her. As her son predeceased her, her title became extinct on her death in 1713.^[1] She was descried as a woman of much life and vivacity, but very little beauty. The future James II of England was informally engaged to her after his first wife's death,^[2] but his brother Charles II of England forbade the marriage, on the ground that James had already damaged the monarchy by marrying a non-royal wife, Anne Hyde: "it was too much that he had played the fool once, and it was not to be done a second time."^[3]
• Anne married firstly Sir Thomas Wodehouse, by whom she had at least two children, including Sir John Wodehouse, 4th Baronet. She married secondly Thomas Crew, 2nd Baron Crew, by whom she had four daughters. She married thirdly Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington. She died in 1719.

Airmine died in London at the age of 36 and was buried on 17 January 1658 at Lenton, Lincolnshire. He had no son and the baronetcy passed to his brother Michael.^[1]

References