Sir Charles Wolseley, 2nd Baronet

Sir Charles Wolseley, 2nd Baronet(c. 1630 – 9 October 1714), ofWolseleyinStaffordshire,was anEnglishpolitician who sat in theHouse of Commonsat various times between 1653 and 1660. He held high office during theCommonwealth.

Life

Wolseley was the eldest son of Sir Robert Wolseley, who had been created a baronet byCharles Iin 1628, and succeeded to the baronetcy on 21 September 1646. He enteredParliamentasMember of ParliamentforOxfordshirein the nominatedBarebones Parliamentof 1653, and on the establishment of theProtectoratelater the same year was appointed to theCouncil of State.He was subsequently elected forStaffordshirein theFirstandSecondParliaments of the Protectorate.In 1658, he was appointed toCromwell'snew Upper House.He representedStaffordin theConvention Parliamentof 1660,and was pardoned at theRestoration.Thereafter he retired from public life, but published a number of pamphlets on ecclesiastical matters.

In 1685, Wolseley was arrested on suspicion of complicity inMonmouth's Rebellion,but was subsequently released.

He was buried inWestminster Abbey,and, unlike many of his contemporaries, not disinterred after the reformation.Dean Stanleydescribes his earthen grave in the southern portion of the Montpensier chapel.

Family

Wolseley married Ann Fiennes, youngest daughter ofWilliam, Viscount Saye and Seleand his wife Elizabeth Temple. They had seven sons and ten daughters:

• Robert Wolseley(died 1697), Envoy-Extraordinary to the Governor General of theSpanish Netherlands,died unmarried
• Charles Wolseley, died without issue
• Fiennes Wolseley, died young
• Sir William Wolseley, 3rd Baronet(c. 1660–1728), who as the oldest surviving son succeeded his father
• Sir Henry Wolseley, 4th Baronet(died 1730)
• Captain Richard Wolseley, father ofSir William Wolseley, 5th Baronet
• James Wolseley
• Elizabeth, who married Robert Somervile and was the mother of the poetWilliam Somervile
• Mary, who married Richard Edwards
• Anne, who married John Berry
• Dorothy
• Bridget
• Penelope, died young
• Susan, who married Charles Wedgwood
• Penelope
• Frances
• Constance

References

• Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
• Edward Kimberand Richard Johnson,The Baronetage of England(London, 1771)[1]
• Mark Noble,Memoirs of several persons and families... allied to or descended from... the Protectorate-House of Cromwell(Birmingham: Pearson & Rollason, 1784)[2]
• Leigh Rayment's list of baronets