Sir William Constable, 1st Baronet (baptised 1590 – 15 June 1655) was an English soldier, politician and regicide, who supported the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War and interregnum.
Life
Constable was the first son of Sir Robert Constable, who owned estates in Flamborough and Holme in Yorkshire. Little is known about Constable's early life. In 1608, Constable married the daughter of Lord Fairfax and hence received the title baronet from James I in 1611.
After James's death in 1625, Constable found an ally in Sir Thomas Wentworth, the future Earl of Stafford. Through Wentworth's appointment as High Sheriff of Yorkshire, Constable was elected Member of Parliament for Yorkshire in 1626, and then of Scarborough in 1628, serving until 1629. Wentworth appointed him his deputy-lieutenant in 1629.
In 1630 Constable fell into considerable debt, and was forced to sell his estates, with plans to move to New England. This fell through, and Constable and his wife moved to the Netherlands. It was here Constable became involved in the Puritans, led by Philip Nye and Thomas Goodwin. Constable returned to England in 1641 and, with the support of his brother-in-law Lord Ferdinando Fairfax, was elected MP for Knaresborough, Yorkshire. Constable raised an infantry against the Royalist faction in 1642, and fought at Edgehill. In 1643 he commanded under the Fairfaxes at East Riding in Yorkshire. Although he resigned his commission under the Self-denying Ordinance in 1645, he remained an active independent parliamentarian. He did, however, return to the army and took control of John Lambert's foot regiment. In 1648, he sided with Colonel Hammond in guarding the King (Charles I) at Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight.
From 1648, he sat on the Army Council in the events leading up to the King's treason trial, and sat as a commissioner of the High Court of Justice during the trial itself, and signed the King's death warrant. After the King had been executed at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, he sat on the Council of State and attended many parliamentary committees concerned with military matters. in 1653 he was High Sheriff of Yorkshire.
Constable died in June 1655, during the Commonwealth, received a State funeral and was buried in Westminster Abbey. After the restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, his body was exhumed from the abbey and re-interred in a communal burial pit in St Margaret's Churchyard, Westminster.
References
- David Scott, ‘Constable, Sir William, baronet (bap. 1590, d. 1655)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
External links
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded bySir Thomas Wentworth Sir Thomas Fairfax |
Member of Parliament for Yorkshire 1626 With: Sir John Savile |
Succeeded byHenry Belasyse Sir Thomas Wentworth |
| Preceded bySir Hugh Cholmeley, Bt Stephen Hutchinson |
Member of Parliament for Scarborough 1628–1629 With: John Harrison |
Parliament suspended until 1640 |
| Preceded bySir Clipseus Crew John Rolle |
Member of Parliament for Callington 1628–1629 With: John Rolle |
Parliament suspended until 1640 |
| Preceded bySir Henry Slingsby, 1st Baronet William Deerlove |
Member of Parliament for Knaresborough 1642–1653 With: Sir Henry Slingsby, 1st Baronet 1642 Thomas Stockdale 1645–1653 |
Not represented in Barebones Parliament |
| Baronetage of England | ||
| New creation | Baronet (of Flamborough) 1611–1655 |
Extinct |
- 1590 births
- 1655 deaths
- Baronets in the Baronetage of England
- Regicides of Charles I
- People from Flamborough
- High sheriffs of Yorkshire
- Burials at St Margaret's, Westminster
- Members of the Parliament of England for constituencies in Yorkshire
- 17th-century English soldiers
- English MPs 1626
- English MPs 1628–1629
- English MPs 1640–1648
- Members of the Parliament of England for Callington
- Military personnel from the East Riding of Yorkshire